A Second Chance
by MariJuanaBreath
Summary: After graduating from Hogwarts school after the second wizarding war, Hermione Granger continues her education at the University of Magical Law and Medical Practices with some familiar faces, including one Draco Malfoy. Rated M for mild scenes of a sexual nature and sensitive topics.
1. The One with Familiar Faces

**Author's Note:**

 **I've got all these essays to write and finals to prepare for and here I am, writing more fanfiction than ever. I've just got so many ideas and inspirations! I hope you all enjoy this new story! I will be uploading new chapters as quickly as I can, as well as to my other fanfictions, depending on my work schedule and my finals.**

 **This fanfiction is set to be a slight AU (alternative universe) and although I will try very hard to keep all the facts straight about what happened in the books, there may be some slight differences so please keep that in mind when reading ahead!**

 **Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you! xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

The taxi pulled to a slow stop by the side of the road, next to an expansive cornfield that stretched for miles out of sight. The cab driver glanced out of the window on both sides, staring around the masses of corn stalks, a confused look forming over his pudgy face. He glanced over his shoulder at the curious woman in the back of his cab and asked with unmasked uncertainty, "This is where you want me to drop you off?"

Hermione Granger nodded, already unbuckling her seatbelt and putting the hat onto her head, hiding her now cut short, frizzy brown hair. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a wad of muggle money, riffling through the stack and pulling a twenty pound note out and passing it up to the front. The cab driver took it, still looking curiously around at the stalks of corn, as though he were waiting for someone to pop out and attack his car.

"Are you sure miss? There ain't nothin round here for miles," the cab driver insisted, watching as the woman he had picked up at King's Cross station opened her door and proceeded to get out.

"No really, this is perfect," Hermione insisted, offering the man a forced smile. She was far too nervous to offer any sort of real reassurance to the cab driver. "If you could just open the trunk for me," she said, shifting around on her balls of her feet and clutching her handbag tight.

The cab driver eyed her a moment longer before he shrugged a rounded shoulder and pressed a button under his steering wheel. A loud _clunk_ sounded from the back of the cab and Hermione hurried around to the back. She had just lifted up the top when the cab driver came waddling around from the driver's side, glancing over his shoulder periodically. He swatted Hermione away when she tried to lift the massive suitcase from the back and began to tug on it himself, grunting with each pull.

Hermione left him to it, rushing back around to her door, which remained open, and reached inside for the animal carrier that sat abandoned on the seat. Her bristly tailed, squashed-faced orange cat, Crookshanks, hissed in annoyance at being stuffed inside the carrier, and glowered at her with impatience.

"I know, I know, just a little longer," she insisted, closing the door and hurrying back around to the back, where the cab driver had finally gotten her luggage out of the trunk. Hermione checked her watch, feeling anxious about being late. It was nearly 2:30 in the afternoon.

"I can take it from here," Hermione said, tying Crookshanks' carrier to the top of her suitcase and giving the cab driver what she hoped was a grateful smile.

"Well…" the cab driver seemed reluctant to leave her alone in the middle of nowhere so far outside London, but after a long pause, where he realized Hermione was not going to get back in the cab, he nodded his head. His hands swung by his sides uncertainly as he started back towards the driver's side of the car. "Alright then, have a good day miss."

Hermione waited until the car had gone out of sight before she repositioned her handbag in her hand, which had begun to sweat from nerves, and grabbed a hold of her suitcase. Glancing up and down the road to make sure it was void of any prying eyes, Hermione stepped into the cornfield. She walked only a few paces inward, until her view of the road was shrouded by husks and brown covered kernels, before a loud crack echoed through the air and Hermione vanished from the place where she had just been standing.

Almost instantaneously, Hermione reappeared past the cornfields on the outskirts of what looked like a little village. Though this village was not like the others that could be found around England. This village was filled with the air of magic. There were shops lined along the main street, with curious objects in the windows such as broomsticks, cauldrons and owls. One of the shops, a book store that looked like any other in London, had a broom that was sweeping the sidewalk on its own, pushing dirt into a dust pin that then vanished into thin air.

The grandest building by far in the little village was across the road from where Hermione had appeared, a five story castle that looked almost like a more modern, miniscule version of Hogwarts, the wizarding school that Hermione had spent seven of her years in, eight including the year that she had missed because she had been on the run with her two best friends, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley.

Hermione felt a pang in her stomach at the sudden remembrance of her friends. She had gone to school with them since they had been eleven years old and now, continuing on with her education, it felt lonely to be without them. She quickly reprimanded herself for feeling sorry for herself and she grabbed her suitcase and hurried across the road towards the large building.

There were already many people gathered in the Great Lawn in front of the building, hauling suitcases and trunks across the grass towards the entrance. Standing at the top of the stairs stood three people older than Hermione and her peers, and she assumed that they must be professors at the school. One of them, an elderly woman with graying hair and a stern expression, reminded Hermione incredibly of Professor McGonagall, the Transfigurations professor at Hogwarts.

Hermione narrowly avoided missing a trolley full of owls in cages which was being pushed towards the entrance as she stared up at the building in front of her.

Today would mark the day in which she would start her journey as an undergraduate witch at the University of Magical Law and Medical Practices. Though as nervous as she was, especially for being nearly twenty minutes late to check into her dorm, Hermione felt a rush of excitement zip through her. Harry and Ron laughed at her when she had told them that instead of immediately taking a job at the Ministry, like they had when it had been offered to them, Hermione wanted to continue on with her education.

"What's the point?" Ron had said, already polishing his new Auror's badge. He was almost as obsessed with it as his older brother Percy had been when he had been selected as Prefect for Gryffindor house. "Why don't you just take the job at the Ministry?"

Hermione didn't know why she had been so reluctant to immediately jump into working after graduating from Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione had gone back to finish their last year, against Ron's wishes, after the second wizarding war had been over. Harry, however, had already been offered a position as an Auror and eagerly took the job. This upset Ron so much that he sulked in class for nearly two months before Quidditch started up.

Perhaps it was the fact that Hermione had never been able to have a quiet year at Hogwarts to fully enjoy her studies and immerse herself in the workings of the magical world. Ever since her first year, when she had been cornered in the girls' bathroom by a troll and later saved by Ron and Harry, she had always found herself in the middle of all the action. Which she had liked back then, but then grew to resent a little when she went back her seventh (technically eighth) year and realized how nice it was to have some peace and quiet.

Or perhaps Hermione merely wanted to stay busy to avoid thinking about her parents, whose minds she had to obliviate during the midst of the war and who did not remember her at all as their daughter.

Either way, Hermione had turned down the offer and had instead applied to a few wizarding universities with the help of Professor McGonagall. Hermione couldn't remember exactly how she had decided that she wanted to go into law, but she knew it was exactly what she wanted. After hearing about all the mistrials during Voldemort's reign and the mistreatment of other magical creatures aside from wizards, Hermione knew that she wanted to help people and bring justice back into the system.

"Oi, move along will you?"

Hermione blinked, quickly coming round from her daydreams and stepping aside to avoid a large mass of women hurrying along, pushing trolleys and eyeing her with annoyance. Hermione blushed heavily and quickly opened her handbag and consulted the sheet of parchment she had folded and stuffed away inside. The parchment, an official letter from the University of Wizarding Law and Medical Practices, told her to meet on the Great Lawn of the university campus at 2.30 on Saturday, September 15th to obtain her list of classes, list of books she would need, and to discover where her dormitory would be.

Hermione looked around the lawn nervously. It was nearing three in the afternoon and she had no idea who to look for.

"Lost, are you?"

Hermione blushed for the second time and quickly wheeled around. A tall man with dark, combed hair and a strong jaw looked at her in amusement, a smile on his thin lips. In his hand he was carrying a large stack of parchments and around his neck hung what looked like a nametag. _Daniel_ shown across it in glittering, silver letters.

"Oh, um," Hermione winced as Crookshanks hissed impatiently from his carrier. She quickly stepped in front of the carrier, hiding it from view. "I'm… I'm a bit late," Hermione confessed, dropping the letter back into her handbag and snapping it shut, gripping it tight with both of her hands.

Daniel gave her a friendly smile and shook his head. "Don't worry, everyone seems to be running late today. Happens every year at the start of term. Your name?"

Hermione started, shifting on her feet anxiously. It felt strange to be at a school where no one knew who she was. She had spent most of her life within the walls at Hogwarts and knew almost everyone by name.

"Oh, Hermione. Hermione Granger."

Daniel riffled through his stack of parchments, whistling a tune, and his cheerful demeanor helped calm Hermione's nerves. She was thankful to have him help her, and not the stern looking woman who was overseeing the chaos from her perch on the stairs with a disapproving gaze. Finally, after a few moments of riffling and whistling, Daniel pulled out from the stack two pieces of parchment.

"Alright Miss. Granger, here is your timetable for this semester and your list of required books. Your dormitory is through these doors," he gestured towards the large doors at the top of the stairs, "Take a left and go up four flights of stairs. Dormitories are on the top floor, classrooms are on floors four, three and two, Mess Hall is on the first floor, along with the library. Left side of the building is law, right side is medical. Don't mix them up, or you'll wind up learning about splinched body parts instead of legislature branches. The basement is out of bounds to all students."

Hermione gingerly took the list and timetable from his hand and glanced up at the building, trying hard to remember everything he said.

"If you have any questions, you can ask any of the professors or anybody wearing a nametag today," Daniel picked up his nametag to show it to her before he let it fall and flashed her another friendly smile. "All set?"

Hermione nodded, though she wasn't quite sure. She assumed that if she was able to find her way around Hogwarts, a castle with seven floors and multiple towers and dungeons and hidden passageways, then she could find her way around here.

Daniel waved and set off to help a lost looking man who was consulting a large map by placing it on the sidewalk and stepping onto it, as though he would be able to better picture where he was if he were literally inside it. Hermione folded up her list and timetable, stuffed it under her arm, and grabbed her suitcase before she started towards the front doors.

It took her nearly fifteen minutes to maneuver her way up to the fifth floor but when she finally did she could feel her nerves coming back to her. Hermione had never been very good at meeting new people and making first impressions, particularly with girls, and she knew from the first official letter she had received that she would be sharing a room with three other girls in the law field.

She stumbled across her room, 5B12, and quickly noticed that the door was already open. A good thing too, considering that she had not been given any sort of key to get inside. She would have to make a mental note to ask about that as she entered the room and quickly looked around.

The room was larger on the inside than it should have been compared to the size of the building, as though an enlargement spell had been placed on it. From the door Hermione could see four, twin-sized beds in various places around the room. Two of the beds had already been made with pillows and blankets while the other two sat bare of anything but the mattress.

Hermione headed towards the bed closest to the lone window of the room and immediately opened Crookshanks's carrier, reaching inside and pulling the fat cat out and placing him on the mattress. Crookshanks stretched and gave her a dirty look before leaping down onto the carpeted floor and walking away, his tail high in the air.

Hermione was alone in the room the whole time that she unpacked her luggage, placing clothes in one of the two shared closets and making up her bed with blankets and pillows of her own. She had just set down a picture of her, Ron and Harry on their last day at Hogwarts during their third year on the windowsill when a knock came at the door. Hermione looked around and watched as a skinny, black haired woman entered the room, no older than Hermione herself was.

The girl spotted her and gave a polite smile. "You must be Hermione," the girl said, taking a peak at the picture frame on the windowsill, before she walked forward and extended her hand. The girl had an accent, though her English seemed perfect, and Hermione couldn't figure out where she might be from. "I'm Eleanor."

Hermione shook her hand, trying not to be awkward as she smiled back.

"Is this your first year here?" Eleanor asked, walking towards her bed, the one with the deep purple satin sheets and butterfly net hanging over it.

"Yes, I've just graduated from Hogwarts," Hermione said, suddenly feeling like she should be doing something even though there was nothing left to do.

"Oh, I've heard of Hogwarts. Padma went there as well," Eleanor said, gesturing towards the other made up bed.

Hermione started at this piece of information. "Padma? Padma Patil?"

Eleanor nodded, picking up a copy of _Witch Weekly_ and looking through it. "Yeah, she showed up about an hour before you. Do you know her?"

Hermione remembered Padma only because her twin sister, Parvati, was in Gryffindor and had been Harry's date to the Yule Ball during their fourth year. She hadn't really known Parvati and she knew even less about her sister, let alone the fact that she had wanted to be a lawyer.

"Sort of, her sister was in my school's house," Hermione explained, wishing she had something to do. Suddenly she remembered about the door and looked at Eleanor. "Do you happen to know where I can get a key for the door?"

Eleanor didn't look up from her magazine as she replied, "Yeah, you can pick them up in the Mess Hall. I think they're still giving them out anyway. If not you can just go to the Headmistresses office and get it there."

Hermione nodded and thought that she might as well hurry and see if she could still pick up the key at the Mess Hall. She had just pushed her suitcase under her bed and exited the room when she ran smack into someone taller than her. Hermione stumbled backwards a little, apologizing profusely and feeling a blush creep up her neck for the third time that day when suddenly she noticed who it was that she had bumped into. Her eyes widened and her mouth slackened and she felt completely at a loss for words. The boy in front of her quickly straightened up, fixing his sweater vest and tugging on the collar of his white button down before running his fingers through his blonde locks.

This must be a dream. It just had to be. But no matter how hard Hermione blinked, his figure did not go away.

Draco Malfoy seemed just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. He stared at her for a long moment, as though he had never seen her before in his life, swiftly taking in her shortened hair, before he glared at her suspiciously. "What are you doing here?" he asked with venom in his voice.

Hermione tried several times to get her mouth to work, opening and closing it, before finally she squeaked out, "What are _you_ doing here?"

Malfoy had returned to Hogwarts also with Ron and Hermione after the battle in order to continue his education, though he had stayed very quiet and hidden away the whole year, probably not feeling so high and mighty without his body guards Crabbe and Goyle. But to see him outside the walls of Hogwarts was so strange and foreign. It's like she hadn't expected him to exist outside of her Hogwarts days.

Malfoy sneered at her, picking up his trunk, which he must have dropped when they had run into each other. A tall, magnificent eagle owl sat in a cage tied to the trunk, its large wings extended threateningly at being toppled over and it hooted indignantly at the pair of them. " _I'm_ here to study medicine," Malfoy spat, suddenly looking very uncomfortable as he checked the little bit of parchment in his pale fingers, his eyebrows pulling together in concentration. "Now if you don't mind, I have to find room 5A16."

Hermione debated telling him that he was on the wrong side of the building, but quickly decided against it as she watched him march off, the eagle owl screeching at him angrily and trying to peck at his slacks through the bars of the cage. It seemed just as impatient to be free of its' confides as Crookshanks was to be free of his.

Hermione quickly started for the stairs to go down towards the Mess Hall, still feeling the remnants of shock course through her at the sight of Draco Malfoy. She knew instantly she'd have to send word to Harry and Ron, alerting them of her current situation. She had never in a million years dreamed that her experience at university would be thwarted by such an unwelcome presence.

It took Hermione the rest of the afternoon to track down a key and to figure out where the owls were kept, which happened to be in a long hut around the back of the building, and by the time dinner rolled around she had almost forgotten about Malfoy. She was just heading for the Mess Hall when she caught sight of Eleanor, accompanied by who at first Hermione thought was Parvati until she remembered that it was actually Padma.

"Hello Hermione," Padma said with a warmer smile than Hermione was expecting. "Eleanor told me you were sharing a room with us. Small world, isn't it? I like your hair."

Hermione thought that Padma had no idea what a small world this really was and, unable to contain herself, immediately told Padma about her encounter with Malfoy. Padma looked just as shocked as Hermione had felt, which made her feel better knowing that she wasn't the only one taken off guard by his sudden appearance.

"Draco Malfoy? Here, at this university?" Padma said in disbelief as they entered the Mess Hall. The Mess Hall was not as grand as Hogwarts' Great Hall had been. For one, it was much smaller, with no enchanted ceiling or tables dedicated to each individual house, or long table at the front of the room where the professors had sat. Instead of the four house tables, the room had twelve to fifteen round tables placed periodically around the room, each seating up to twenty-five people. Hermione followed Padma and Eleanor to an empty table and sat down.

By each plate sat a silver menu with the universities' crest of a needle and a mallet intercrossing, and Hermione was instantly reminded of the dinner before the Yule Ball, where someone only had to pick up the menu and tell the plate what they wanted and the food would appear magically. Or, as Hermione remembered, quite bitterly, was put there by magic House Elves who worked in secret for no pay and with no days off.

"Who is this Malfoy guy and why is it such a shock that he's here?" Eleanor asked, after telling her plate that she wanted steak with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Padma and Hermione shared a look before they dove into detail about how cruel Malfoy had been to them at Hogwarts, and how he had been from Slytherin house, the worst house that produced the most amount of dark wizards, and how his family had been involved in the wizarding war and how Malfoy himself had been involved in the second wizarding war. It took the better part of dinner to explain why Malfoy being there was the worst thing to ever happen, and by the time they had finished their tales, dessert was being served.

"Wow," Eleanor said, taking a bite of her chocolate pudding. "He sounds like quite the character."

Hermione thought that this reaction was a little under enthusiastic considering everything that Padma and Hermione had told her, but she tried to brush this thought away while she asked her plate for a slice of pumpkin pie.

"So, which one is he?" Eleanor asked, craning her neck to see around at the other tables, which had quickly filled up over the course of dinner. Two girls and a guy had sat down on the opposite side of their own table, but they seemed to be too immersed in a textbook about magical maladies to really pay them any attention. "Is he cute at least?"

Hermione nearly choked on her pumpkin pie at Eleanor's question and her face instantly heated with unexplained frustration. "Malfoy? _Cute_? Certainly not."

Padma scrapped at her plate and didn't say anything, avoiding Hermione's eyes, who looked at her for backup. Eleanor glanced at Padma and elbowed her gently. "What do you think Padma?" Eleanor asked with a mischievous smirk.

Padma's cheeks brightened in color and she tried to shrug nonchalantly. Hermione's mouth fell open a little as Padma whispered, "Well, I mean, he isn't all that bad looking." Padma noticed Hermione's expression and rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Hermione. Yes, he's a twat and he's really annoying, but you can't pretend like he isn't a _little_ cute."

Hermione felt betrayed, though she wasn't sure why. Padma had every right to think what she wanted of Malfoy, even if Hermione didn't agree with her. She hadn't been in Gryffindor and, from what Hermione knew, Malfoy had never targeted or bullied her at all throughout Hogwarts, though she had no way of knowing for sure. Still, Hermione bristled at the very idea of it all, straightening in her seat and taking another dignified bite of her pie. "Well, I don't think he's very _cute_ at all," on the word cute Hermione spit a small piece of pumpkin pie in her anger and Eleanor laughed.

"So, which one is he?" Eleanor asked again, clearly very interested to judge for herself Malfoy's level of cuteness.

Padma craned her neck to look around and, after a moment of refusing to, Hermione gave in and also looked around the room, trying to spot his unmistakable blond hair. But nowhere in the hall could she see him and a frown came to her lips.

"I don't think he's here," Hermione said quietly, unable to stop herself from feeling suspicious. What could he be up to that he wasn't down at dinner? Perhaps he had walked into the wrong room and saw some girl naked and she filed a complaint and he was expelled and kicked off of campus. It was a long shot, but the idea made Hermione feel a bit happier.

"Well, whenever we do come across him, you'll have to point him out to me," Eleanor said, looking a little disappointed.

They ate the rest of their dessert and discussed their classes on Monday, a topic which Hermione was more than happy to move onto, and finally when the plates were cleared of all crumbs, they stood and decided to head back to their room for some sleep. They had all arrived that day and were tired from traveling. Eleanor, Hermione found out, had come all the way from Slovakia.

When Hermione laid her head down on the pillow in her new room, she had assumed that she would fall asleep instantly. Instead, her body seemed to suddenly buzz with excitement and anticipation for the coming term. She had come to the conclusion that she would not let Malfoy's appearance at the university ruin her new adventure. _Besides_ , she thought to herself as she rolled onto her side, _he's in medical and I'm in law. Our classes and dorms are on separate sides of the building. We'd only see each other sometimes in the Mess Hall_.

With this new thought putting her mind at ease, Hermione drifted off into an easy, dreamless sleep.


	2. The One with Malfoy's Fight

**Author's Note:**

 **Sorry for the wait everyone, but just know that the next chapter will be lengthy and full of nice content.**

 **Enjoy! xx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

When Hermione woke up the next morning, it dawned on her that the fourth bed in her room was still empty. She wondered briefly where the other occupant was before she got up and dressed herself. Her list of required textbooks was sitting on the windowsill next to her picture of Ron and Harry, and she picked it up just as Padma stirred on the other side of the room.

"Hey," Padma said in a quiet, sleepy voice so as not to wake Eleanor. "Are you going to buy your books today?"

"I was hoping to," Hermione said, folding up the parchment and pocketing it.

"Do you mind if I come?" Padma asked, sitting up and looking at her.

Hermione hesitated. She knew that Padma was being friendly, and Hermione appreciated it, she could desperately use some friends, but she couldn't shake the odd feeling she had in the pit of her stomach that she was abandoning Harry and Ron. This wasn't true, of course, as Harry and Ron were both very busy with Auror duty, and hadn't even sent back word yet about the news of Malfoy. Still, Hermione had hardly ever conversed with other females besides Ginny, and though she was slightly nervous, she was also wondering if it would be a bit of a relief to talk to a woman for once.

"Oh, um, yes sure," Hermione finally said, offering a smile.

Padma smiled back and hurriedly got out of bed to change and brush her hair. A little while later they were walking down to the Mess Hall to grab a quick bite of breakfast before they headed off to the bookstore Hermione had seen yesterday with the broomstick that was sweeping the sidewalk on its own. The bright white and blue tiles and wallpaper in the Mess Hall was not as soothing in the morning as the Great Hall had been, with its long wooden tables and enchanted ceiling. Hermione tried not to feel homesick for Hogwarts as her and Padma sat themselves down at an empty table. The Mess Hall was particularly empty at this time of the morning.

After ordering their food and eating in silence, Hermione glanced over her shoulder to look around the Mess Hall, wondering if Malfoy was stalking anywhere around. A quick sweep of the room told her that he was not. Again, her hopes soared as she thought that perhaps Malfoy had been expelled before the term even started, and she left the Mess Hall with Padma in slightly happier spirits.

The streets of the little village were just about as barren as the Mess Hall had been, and though the morning air was a little cold, the sun was already out beating down on them.

As Hermione talked to Padma, she realized that though her and her sister looked identical, they definitely were nothing alike. Parvati, who always seemed to be seen with Lavender Brown at her heels, was an airy sort of witch, who believed heavily in the idea of horoscopes and fawned over Professor Trelawny, the Divination professor that Hermione couldn't stand. To her surprise, Padma couldn't stand her either.

"Parvati always went on and on about how important it was to check my tea leaves," Padma said, as the two women entered the book store, the bell clanging over their heads as they went. "She said that if I didn't, I'd be doomed to repeat past mistakes and if I kept living my life like that, I'd end up dead."

Padma and Hermione both rolled their eyes at the same time and then cast each other a knowing grin. Professor Trelawny had always been obsessed with death, especially the moment Harry Potter had entered her classroom. Neither of the girls took their old professor very seriously, and they continued to talk about all the nonsense she had spouted while they started to gather their books. Padma was overly thrilled to find out that Hermione had stormed out of Trelawny's class back in third year and never went back.

"I wish I'd had the guts to do that," Padma said longingly, standing on her tip toes and taking a book down from a high shelf. Hermione had been so engrossed in reading the back of one of her textbooks that she didn't even notice when Padma let out a little gasp of surprise, until the girl jabbed her finger into Hermione's side rather roughly. "It's Malfoy."

Hermione swiveled around so fast that she kinked her neck and, eyes watering, she raised a hand to massage the tissue. Through her blurry vision she caught sight of Malfoy's luminescent blonde hair bobbing along between aisles of magical maladies on the other side of the book store. Anger, frustration and, for some reason, nerves shot through Hermione all at once and she gripped her textbooks closer to her chest.

He didn't seem to have noticed them as he trailed his pale fingers along the spines of the books, his thin lips moving wordlessly as he read to himself, before he yanked down a particularly large volume about the human body parts. He weighed the book in his hand, as though testing to see how it felt, before his light eyes suddenly looked up and caught them staring.

Hermione stupidly lifted her textbooks up to pretend to be reading the back of one and Padma turned around to face the wall, not realizing that there was no bookcase there to distract herself with. A tense moment passed by in which Hermione couldn't see what Malfoy was doing, and she waited with baited breath to see if he would approach them. After a long, awkward pause, in which Padma flipped open a magazine and pretended to read it facing the wall, the bell above the door chimed. Hermione lowered her textbooks and scanned the book store cautiously, but it seemed as though Malfoy had left.

Padma and Hermione glanced at each other and then broke out into a fit of giggles. How stupid they must have looked, hiding their faces, and from Malfoy of all people.

They found the rest of their textbooks and proceeded to the check out, paying the old woman behind the counter who counted coins at the slowest possible speed.

The day passed uneventfully as Hermione readied her things for tomorrow's first day of classes, laid out her clothes, and finished unpacking some of her more trivial objects that she hadn't yet placed around her room. Around noon Eleanor stirred from her sleep and also seemed to notice that they were short one person in their room.

"Maybe she decided she didn't want to come here," Padma suggested when Eleanor brought it up.

After reviewing their schedules, showering and wandering their new home in search of the library, the three girls appeared in the Mess Hall around six that evening for dinner. Padma was blabbering on about something or another and Hermione had her nose in her one of her new textbooks, _Half-Beasts and Their Rights in the Wizarding Government_ , when suddenly Eleanor broke off Padma's steady stream.

"Have you guys seen that Malfoy character again?"

Hermione tensed in her seat and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Eleanor was only interested in seeing Malfoy because she hadn't gone to school with him. She didn't know what a brat he truly was.

"Oh yes, we saw him in the bookstore this morning," Padma said. Hermione saw Eleanor look around the Mess Hall out of the corner of her eye, but this time, she did not join in. She didn't understand why Eleanor wanted to see him so bad, especially after everything Hermione and Padma had told her about him. Padma suddenly gasped, like she had done in the book store that morning, and jabbed Eleanor in the side. "There he is, over there. He's the one with the blonde hair."

Hermione couldn't help it, she glanced curiously around the room to see where Padma was pointing. Indeed, it seems as though Malfoy had finally found his way to the Mess Hall and was sitting by himself at a table, the large textbook they had seen him with was propped open against a jug of pumpkin juice and he was reading it very intently.

"Ooo, he _is_ quite cute," Eleanor said, eyeing him over the rim of her cup.

Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes, turning back to her book. "He's a right ass," she muttered, though she wasn't sure Eleanor or Padma had heard her.

After listening to the two girls talk about Malfoy for only five minutes, Hermione already knew she'd had enough. She quickly dismissed herself from their company and hurried out of the Great Hall, feeling a headache beginning to grow behind her eyes. She ran her fingers through her hair and let out a sigh when she finally reached her room.

Hermione stripped of her pajamas and crawled into bed, taking a fleeting glance at the picture on her windowsill before rolling over and going to sleep.

When Monday morning came around, Hermione was awoken by the light sounds of an owl's beak on the window by her bed. She glanced over, blurry-eyed and sleepy, and saw the owl she had sent off to Harry and Ron staring in at her expectantly. Hermione got up excitedly and let the owl hop inside before untying the letter from around its leg. The owl shook its feathers out, stretched its wings, and took off again out the window.

Hermione sat down on her bed and opened the letter, smiling a little when she saw Harry and Ron's sloppy handwriting.

 _Hermione-_

 _Really sorry to hear about Malfoy being there. I know he got off on all of his charges with the Ministry, but it still seems unfair that he's there. You've only just gotten rid of him. Ron and I have been out all weekend, looking for giants. Hagrid was right, as big as they are, they're really hard to find. The Ministry wants to offer them a new treaty, but they didn't seem too thrilled about it. Ron broke his arm when we were running away. Not doing anything dangerous mind you, he tripped over a stump._

 _Hope your classes are everything you want them to be. Ginny and Mrs. Weasley say hello._

 _-Harry_

 _P.S. Mom says the village you're in is famous for these wizard treats of toffee with non-solidifying melted chocolate on top. Do you think you could send some with your next letter? Cheers Hermione!_

 _\- Ron_

Hermione tried not to be nervous at the mention of Harry and Ron going off looking for giants. She also tried very hard not to be jealous that they were off doing things without her, because she knew that was silly. She had been given the opportunity to be an Auror just like they had gotten, and she had turned it down.

Hermione reread the last bit of the letter, Ron's request for treats, and rolled her eyes a little. Sure, she had just seen them a bit ago, but it would be nice if Ron's main focus wasn't on food when he'd replied to her.

She wondered vaguely if he missed her like she missed him as she started getting ready for class. After the war had ended, and the fear of sudden death wasn't hanging over their heads, things had grown a little awkward between them. They spent the summer before their last year in a nervous, happy atmosphere, but the moment they arrived back at Hogwarts without Harry to finish their education, things quickly slid back to the way they had always been. Not to mention Ron was consistently grumpy without Harry being there.

He simply refused to do his work sometimes and then Hermione would badger him until they got into an argument and Ron would go off to sulk somewhere, until he became too lonely and came back. Hermione hardly thought of that time together as being in a relationship, and while she had been so intent on thinking about Ron, she hadn't even noticed that her feet had carried her all the way to her class until she was sitting down and her professor, Professor Shutnik, a middle-aged wizard with dark, wild hair, was asking for silence.

Hermione tried to push Ron out of her mind and focused on taking notes. It was only Introduction to Wizarding Law, a fairly easy lecture that was mandatory for all new students to take, but if Hermione took particular care with her notes, she was able to clear her mind more efficiently.

The day was on fast-forward and Hermione breezed through her first two introductory to law classes, both of which were two hours long, in a haze of scribbled notes. By the time lunch had come around she was starving, and quickly met Padma on the way to the Mess Hall.

"Hey, how are your classes going?" Padma asked as they sat down, pulling her menu towards her.

"They've been alright. The Introduction to Law classes are quite long compared to Hogwarts," Hermione said, before ordering a chicken quesadilla from the menu.

"Yeah, I've noticed that too. Some of my classes are alright, 45 minutes each, but I've got Human Rights Muggle Versus Wizards after lunch and it's-"

Hermione never figured out how long Padma's class was before a loud commotion drowned out her voice. Turning swiftly in her seat and thinking instantly of Death Eaters and sinister attacks, Hermione quickly pulled out her wand and looked around the room to see who to curse first. A large crowd had formed near the middle of the Mess Hall, whooping and cheering at something happening out of sight. Hermione and Padma shared a curious look before standing to their feet and trying to see over everyone's heads.

Professor Shutnik came speeding into the Mess Hall, wand raised and looking furious. He gave it a flick and the crowd instantly parted for him as students stumbled backwards as though they were pushed aside, and Hermione caught a glimpse of what had caused all the commotion.

A flash of blonde fell to the floor and Malfoy's face was covered in blood, smearing the front of his shirt. His nose looked crooked, but Hermione couldn't tell if it was broken from this far away. The man standing over him was broad shouldered and red faced, and looked quite pleased with himself until Professor Shutnik appeared in front of him.

"There's nothing to see here," Professor Shutnik said loudly to the crowd at large, reaching down and grabbing Malfoy by the shoulder and yanking him to his feet. "To the Headmistresses office, both of you." He ushered them out of the Great Hall quickly, Malfoy wading his sleeve up to his nose to stem the flow of blood, which trickled down and left a trail on the bright tiles.

Eleanor nearly missed getting trampled by three of them as they left, and she looked absolutely ecstatic when she caught sight of Malfoy's bloody face. She hurried over to where Hermione and Padma sat, instantly asking what had happened.

"We didn't really see," Padma said watching the door, as though they might come back and put on another display. "We just saw the end of it."

"Well, you can't say he isn't interesting," Eleanor said, looking mischievous. "You didn't tell me he was a fighter."

Hermione whipped around in her seat and gave Eleanor a haughty look. "Obviously he isn't, he was the one covered in blood."

"I wonder who started it," Padma said.

"Or what it was about," Eleanor chimed in, flipping through the menu, though she seemed far more interested in gazing around the hall, as though someone would start explaining at large what had happened moments ago.

Hermione shifted in her seat, looking towards the door again. She had no doubt in her mind that Malfoy had been the one who had started the fight. He was always running his mouth, even in front of those he was clearly no match for. Still, the whole situation seemed very odd. It didn't seem like Malfoy had fought back at all, judging by the puddle of blood one of the other professors Hermione didn't know was cleaning up, and he hadn't said anything or tried to blame the other man to Professor Shutnik. In fact, he hadn't even looked very shocked that he had just been pummeled in front of the whole room.

Hermione's curiosity soared and before she could think twice about what she was doing, she grabbed her bag and said goodbye to Padma and Eleanor before hurrying out of the Mess Hall.

She worried for a moment that she would have no idea where to go, until she spotted the little droplets of scarlet blood trailing off to the left and down a corridor Hermione hadn't been to before. Bouncing on the balls of her feet nervously as she went, Hermione followed the trail down the corridor. She didn't know what she expected. Perhaps to come across them out in a hallway and to hear Malfoy explain the situation.

But the trail entered at room to the right and disappeared under a closed door. Hermione's shoulders slumped and her sense began to return to her. Clearly she was just missing her adventures with Harry and Ron, and that was why she was going off looking for trouble.

Hermione turned on her heels, about to head off back the way she had come in hopes of stopping in the library before her next class, when the door behind her suddenly opened.

"The next time I see either of you in a tussle, muggle or magical, it'll be the last," a stern woman's voice was saying from somewhere inside the room as Malfoy and his sparring buddy stepped out into the hall.

Hermione shifted awkwardly on her feet as the door closed and both boys' eyes landed on her. Malfoy looked as surprised as he had when Hermione had run into him on their first day and she couldn't blame him. She felt her face instantly heat up and she willed her feet to move, or for her brain to come up with some sort of excuse.

The broad shouldered boy next to Malfoy glanced her over, then shot an angry glare at Malfoy before quickly hurrying off down the hall. Malfoy's face was clear of any flowing blood, though his upper lip and chin were stained a light red and his nose looked crooked and bruised.

They stood in silence, staring each other down, Malfoy glaring as though daring her to say something, but Hermione had nothing to say. She crossed her arms over her chest, casting about wildly for some sort of excuse or explanation as to why she was there. Suddenly, anger flared up inside her chest all over again.

"What are you even doing here Malfoy?" she found herself asking again, because she wished that he wasn't. Every time she looked at him she thought of the war, and everything he had done against Dumbledore, and most importantly, she thought about his monstrous aunt and the awful word she had carved into Hermione's skin on the floor of his dining room. She wished he hadn't shown up and she wished he would just go away.

"I was in a fight, surely you saw it and relished in it," he said stiffly, and Hermione's eyebrows pulled together.

"I don't mean why are you at the Headmistresses office," she said through gritted teeth. "I mean, why are you at this school?"

His light eyes seemed to look over her face, as though he were searching for something that he could not find, or perhaps stalling for time, but when he spoke again, his voice was just as stiff and agitated as it had been a moment ago. "You already asked me that. If you aren't moving forward then you're moving backwards Granger."

"I still don't understand," her hands were shaking now and she didn't know what was wrong with her. "It seems like you're just here to pick fights and annoy everybody around you."

She couldn't tell if Malfoy's face became flushed or if it was just the stains of blood. "I didn't pick any fight."

"Then I suppose he started it then, did he? Are you sure you didn't say something atrocious and offensive like usual?"

Malfoy snorted and brushed past her, looking irritated and, she might have imagined it, sulky. "Now _you're_ the one whose annoying everybody around you Granger."

Hermione watched him go but she couldn't find it in herself to say anything back. She merely stood there, simmering with unexplained fury, before she finally stomped off to her next class.

* * *

The first week passed by blazingly dull. Hermione tried to push her encounter with Malfoy to the back of her mind all week, mostly because whenever she thought about it she became increasingly embarrassed. She didn't know where her sudden anger had come from, or why she had even tried to track him down in the first place. Padma suggested, when Hermione confided in her one night when Eleanor was in the shower, that maybe she was feeling like everything around her was changing, and she wanted something normal to go back to. And for Hermione, arguing with Malfoy in the corridors over something stupid was about as normal as it got.

Hermione thought this through over the next few days and by Friday she had concluded that perhaps Padma was right. Perhaps she was trying so hard not to feel lonely without Harry and Ron that she was looking for anything to distract herself with.

Feeling a bit better, Hermione left her last class on that Friday afternoon and headed back up to her dorm. She had just entered the room and was pulling out one of her textbooks to review what she had learned in class when Eleanor came flouncing in, looking incredibly happy about something. Hermione didn't have to ask what was elating her so because as soon as she saw Hermione she came over, a bounce in every step.

"What are you doing tonight?" she asked innocently, looking at the textbook in Hermione's hands.

Hermione eyed her carefully. "I was just going to review some of my lectures-"

"So, nothing really that fun, then?"

Hermione scowled. It was like talking to Ron all over again. "Actually, I find it rather enjoyable," Hermione bristled, though she had to admit that reviewing the branches of wizarding government didn't sound as enjoyable as some of her homework had been at Hogwarts. "Why? What are you doing?"

Eleanor seemed overjoyed that Hermione had asked and quickly hurried over to the closet she shared with Padma. "I'm going to a party, and you and Padma are coming with me," she said definitively, pulling out a black dress and holding it up to inspect it.

Hermione felt her nerves give a jolt. This was why she had such a hard time hanging out with girls and why she had preferred the company of Harry and Ron. _They_ had never forced her to go to a party before. Mostly because they themselves had never gone, and Hermione had been more than happy with that arrangement.

"I don't know," Hermione said, looking down at the textbook in her hands just as Padma entered the room.

"Oh Padma, brilliant that you're here actually, get ready," Eleanor said, yanking her shirt from over her head. Hermione couldn't help but notice that she could see all of Eleanor's ribs as she pulled the black dress on and fluffed out her dark curls.

"Get ready for what?" Padma asked, with a tone of excitement that had been absent from Hermione's voice.

"I've been invited to a party tonight and you're coming with me," Eleanor said, "Hermione too."

Padma looked at Hermione with a shocked expression that she was failing to try and hide. "Really Hermione, you are?"

Hermione felt herself bristle at the look Padma was giving her and she quickly put down her textbook. "Um, yes, of course I am," she said, trying to sound confident, to which Eleanor laughed and hurried over to the full length mirror she had situated by her bed.

"Oh well, what are you going to wear?" Padma asked, heading over to the shared closet and digging around through her cupboards.

"Er," Hermione shifted on her feet, trying to think what sort of clothes she had in her closet that would be acceptable for a university party. She honestly had no idea and quickly walked over to inspect her wardrobe.

By the time Eleanor had put on her magic, dark lipstick and smoky grey eyeshadow, and Padma had changed into a long dark purple skirt and a half shirt, Hermione still had no found anything suitable to wear. Most of her wardrobe was made up of jeans and sweaters and she crossed her arms self consciously around herself when her roommates both turned to look at her.

Eleanor smirked and Hermione could tell Padma was trying to hide an amused smile.

"You have no idea what to wear, do you?" Eleanor asked, her long necklaces swaying and the multiple bangles and bracelets on her wrists clanging as she walked back over to her closet. "Come, I have some really nice clothes you can wear."

"Oh, can I help with your make up Hermione?" Padma asked hopefully, smoothing out her long hair.

"You've also got really short hair, so there's nothing much we can do there, but I've got this nice warp you can tie around your neck to spruce it up a bit," Eleanor babbled on, pulling from her closet multiple shirts and shorts and skirts. Hermione grew more and more anxious.

"I'm not sure that any of these are really my style," she tried to say, but her words seemed to fall on deaf ears as Eleanor handed her a black skirt and a grey tank top. Compared to the other clothes Eleanor had picked out, these were the calmest she could have given her, and because of this, Hermione felt she was obliged to try them on without complaint.

She had never felt more unlike herself than in that moment. She moved the tank top around and looked nervously from Padma to Eleanor and back again.

"This isn't really something I'd-"

"Would you relax?" Eleanor said, sitting her down and handing Padma her makeup bag. "Look," she said, while Padma scrounged through the bag and Eleanor wound the black thin wrap around Hermione's head. "You have really nice, long legs, you've got attractive hips and a flat stomach, and you're eyes are really pretty, so stop worrying about what you look like and get ready to have some fun."

Hermione tried not to feel flattered, and she tried not to think of how she wished Ron could see her, and she tried not to flinch as Padma leaned down to swipe some subdued red lipstick across her lips, and before she knew it, she was putting on one of Eleanor's comfy denim jackets and heading out into the hall to go to a party.


	3. The One with Hermione's First Party

**Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

The university corridors were alive in a way that they had not been during the school week. A low buzz of excitement and anticipation echoed through the halls and Hermione tried, and failed, not to notice all the attention their small group was attracting from the other students. Eleanor seemed not to mind the stares of everyone as they passed, and Hermione was quite sure that she actually enjoyed it, as the dark haired witch waved at a group of guys that Hermione did not know.

"Where is this party Eleanor?" Hermione asked, trying hard not to straighten out the skirt that left her long legs exposed or adjust the straps of her tank top under the denim jacket. She settled for balling up her hands into fists and shoving them into the pockets of the jacket and trying to focus on holding her chin up.

Eleanor didn't answer at first, greeting a girl in a purple, tight dress with long blonde hair by the stairwell. They babbled to each other for a moment, each talking excitedly about something that Hermione didn't catch, when suddenly the girl caught eyes with her. The blonde gave her a once over, pausing once to examine her short hair and once again at her knees before giving her a forced smile. Hermione's muscles stiffened defensively.

"Love your hair," the girl said, ignoring the fact that Eleanor was still talking at lightning speeds.

Hermione couldn't tell from the girls tone, but she thought that maybe it wasn't supposed to be a compliment. She settled for saying nothing. Eleanor, eager to have the girl's attention again, informed her that they were on their way to a party. The girl seemed unimpressed by this, tossing a casual "cool" over at Eleanor, her eyes never once leaving Hermione.

"Hey, you're Hermione Granger, right?" the girl asked, her smile looking faker and more forced by the minute. Hermione shifted awkwardly on her feet, wishing she was wearing sneakers instead of the black booties Padma had lent her, though she was thankful for the extra height they gave her.

"Er, yes, I am," Hermione said, noting the pained look on Eleanor's face at being brushed aside.

"You're friends with Harry Potter," the girl said, and though it seemed like a question, it sounded more like an answer. Hermione nodded, unable to find something to say. "Interesting." Hermione didn't know why that was so interesting, but she was quite unenthusiastic to ever find out. The girl glanced her over one more time before she turned and exchanged a kiss on the cheek with Eleanor. "Have fun tonight girls," she said, and it sounded like a threat to Hermione, before she turned and disappeared back up the hall towards an open dorm door that was emitting smoke and loud music.

Eleanor seemed unfazed by this encounter as she quickly started down the stairwell, beckoning Hermione and Padma to follow.

"Uh, Eleanor," Padma said uncertainly, casting a glance behind her as though she thought the girl had turned around and followed them, "Who was that?"

Eleanor either didn't hear her or pretended not to as they reached the bottom floor and were immediately swept into a large crowd of students walking down the corridor. Hermione looked around, bewildered by the amount of people. Having only seen the law students in her class, and the small amount of people who ate in the Mess Hall, it was hard to believe that this many students went to this university.

"Where is everyone going?" Hermione asked, for surely they all couldn't be going to the same party that they were going. Eleanor smiled and suddenly seemed to regain her hearing.

"There's a concert playing down on Crescent Avenue, I suspect most of them are heading there."

True to Eleanor's words, many of the students veered right and exited the building at the front entrance, while Eleanor lead them past the doors and throngs of people and continued onto the other side of the building.

"The party is in the medical wing?" Padma asked, as they began to climb the steps of yet another stairwell. Hermione instantly grew anxious and began casting her eyes around, looking for any sign of Malfoy. She couldn't help it, she hadn't seen him since he had gotten into his fight and she had liked it that way. She was anxious to think that she would be embarrassed the next time she ran into him, and she was hoping to prolong that encounter.

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Eleanor said sweetly as they reached the fifth floor and began heading down the corridor. The medical wing was much more alive than the law wing had been. Many of the students were outside in the corridors, drinking Firewhiskey from plastic cups and one group of particularly large boys were tossing a Quaffle back and forth. "That guy that pummeled Malfoy in the face, he's the one that invited me to the party. He's in his second year of medical school."

Hermione scowled a little at this. She didn't know why, but something inside her squirmed at the idea of going to a party with the broad shouldered man who had beaten Malfoy's face multiple times with his fist.

"The guy who fought Malfoy invited you to a party?" Padma asked, seeming just as shocked as Hermione.

"Yeah," Eleanor said breezily, her smile growing bigger as she passed the guys throwing the Quaffle and began to slow down. Hermione's eyes were quickly scanning the numbers on the doors as they went, and dread began to build up inside of her as they passed rooms 5A12 and 5A14. She just came to the horrible realization of where they were going when Eleanor said, "He's Malfoy's roommate. Can you believe it?"

No, Hermione could not believe it, nor could she believe it when Eleanor entered a room to the left whose door was wide open and gleamed the number 5A16 and she saw Malfoy for the first time all week. Her eyes were instantly drawn to him and his ridiculous shining hair. He was sitting in the corner of the dimly lit, crowded room on a couch, drinking from a medium-sized bottle of Firewhiskey and talking in hurried terms to another boy next to him. His face was no longer stained of any blood and his nose looked straighter and completely healed, though there were now bruises sitting under his eyes. Judging by the yellow tint of them, Hermione would say that those were almost healed as well.

"Derek," Eleanor said, as the broad shouldered man Hermione had seen outside the headmistresses office with Malfoy started towards them from across the room. Hermione tore her gaze away from Malfoy and tried to act natural, though she seemed to have forgotten how to stand properly. Any moment now, Malfoy would look over and see her standing there. What would he say? Would he even say anything to her? Surely he wouldn't approach her, with all these people around. Hermione felt incredibly anxious, though she tried not to let it show. "These are my friends, and roommates," Eleanor said when Derek finally made his way through the crowd towards them and had given Eleanor a hug as if they were old school friends. "This is Padma and this is Hermione."

Derek, who looked plenty happier than when Hermione had last seen him, gave both of them a smile and welcomed them to his party with a big, dramatic wave of his hand. Padma laughed politely and Hermione shifted again. She felt like someone was watching her, and she was scared to turn and find out who.

"Drinks are free for ladies," Derek continued and Hermione tried hard to listen to what he was saying. "They're over on the desk there," he pointed towards a desk that had been cleared of everything except multiple bottles and bowls of different kinds of alcohol. "Feel free to take however much you like."

"Hermione, let's go and get something to drink," Padma said, and before Hermione could refuse, Padma had taken her by the hand and was pulling her away towards the desk top of drinks.

Hermione busied herself with picking out the coldest bottle of Firewhiskey while Padma decided to be a little more daring and ladled out some of the liquid from one of the unidentified bowls into a cup.

"It seems strange, doesn't it?" Padma asked, after taking a sniff of her drink and deciding that it was alright take a sip. "Malfoy's roommate attacking him like that, and then Eleanor having us turn up at his party."

Hermione really wished that the subject of Malfoy wouldn't have come up tonight, but she guessed she should have known better. They were, after all, partying in Malfoy's room. This thought was even stranger to her than the fact that Malfoy's roommate had punched him across the face a few days ago. Hermione Granger was standing in Draco Malfoy's room. She couldn't help herself, her curiosity getting the better of her, and she glanced around at the three beds, wondering which one was Malfoy's. One of the walls by a bed was covered entirely in Quidditch posters and photos of friends and Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that that bed was not Malfoy's. Maybe it was Derek's. He seemed like the type of guy to worship Quidditch, as Ron had done throughout their school days.

The other bed had generic bed sheets and only one pillow, and the surface of the desk next to it was covered in jars full of suspicious looking liquids and body parts of creatures generally used in potion making. Hanging above the bed, however, was a poster of a muggle band that Hermione was sure Malfoy had never heard of before in his life.

That left the last bed, pressed against the wall on the other side of the room, covered in a single, black satin sheet, with bare walls and nothing on the desk beside it except a pile of magical medical books. Hermione didn't know if she was surprised or not to find Malfoy's living quarters so empty and void of any life, though she didn't have much time to contemplate this before Derek had come lumbering up to them. It was clear from the haze in his eyes and the stagger in his step that he was more than a little drunk.

"You're Hermione Granger, right?"

Hermione found herself becoming increasingly annoyed with this question. She had hoped that by chopping her hair of its signature curls and not having Harry and Ron follow her everywhere, that she would have been able to avoid the awkward attention all together. Clearly, that was a stupid assumption on her part.

"Er, yes, I am," Hermione said, trying to smile politely. He was, after all, providing them with free beverages. The least she could do was be polite, even when his breath reeked.

"What was it like? The war."

Padma and Hermione exchanged a quick glance. Nobody at the university had mentioned the second wizarding war, especially not to Hermione, and she felt herself grow a little anxious again. Before Hermione could answer, however, Eleanor had appeared in front of them and, judging by the excited look on her face and breathless voice, she had just taken a few shots out in the hall.

"Come on! Let's change this dreadful song and dance!" Eleanor grabbed Padma by the elbow and Hermione took this opportunity to down some of the contents of her cup. If she had to suffer any more questions from hulking Derek, she felt she was going to need as much alcohol in her system as she could allow.

Hermione didn't know what she expected Eleanor's music choice to be, but a muggle song would definitely not have been her first guess, especially not a song that had come out only two years ago, in 1995. However, despite her surprise, "Come on Eileen" from the Dexys Midnight Runners came pouring out of the magical speakers and Eleanor begged them to dance with her, even though nobody else in the room was dancing.

Hermione felt her cheeks flush as Padma put down her cup and grasped hands with Eleanor, twisting and turning excitedly and laughing. Hermione drank some more of her Firewhiskey, feeling a little light and a little airy, and she noticed that she was smiling while she watched along with the other occupants of the room as Eleanor and Padma danced crazily in the middle of it all.

"Hermione, come on," Eleanor prodded, holding out a hand towards her. Hermione could tell some of the other people in the room had turned to look at her and her cheeks flushed even more, though from embarrassment or from the heat of the room, Hermione wasn't entirely sure.

"I don't know El," Hermione said, giggling as Padma turned in a full circle, swinging her arms and looking ecstatic. Eleanor was making spastic moves with her hands, trying to entice Hermione to come dance with them, and before she knew what she was doing, she had downed the rest of her Firewhiskey and had walked hesitantly over to join them.

Eleanor wasted no time once Hermione was in her reach, and she snatched Hermione's hand and twirled her around, laughing and moving around like there was nothing important in the world besides dancing in that moment. Hermione found herself smiling and dancing and everything that had been worrying her since she had arrived at university suddenly left her mind.

Perhaps it was the effects of the Firewhiskey, or the eager smiles on Eleanor and Padma's shining faces, or the way the enchanted lights on the ceiling twinkled, or the jumpy beat in the music pouring into her ears, but Hermione hadn't felt this happy since long before the war. She didn't even seem to notice that the room had taken to watching them, and she didn't even remember to roll her eyes when a few other girls had squealed in excitement and come running over to join them. People were raising their cups in the air and cheering to their sporadic dancing, and some people had even stopped in the doorway to watch, happy smiles on all their faces.

For the first time in a long time, Hermione forgot about the war, and everything seemed to melt away from her in a big flood of relief. Her chest felt light in a way that she couldn't ever remember feeling it, and she didn't think she thought about Ron once.

It wasn't until she had lifted her eyes to the surrounding crowd that Hermione had caught him watching them. No. Caught him watching _her_. Malfoy was still sitting on the couch a few paces away, his bottle of Firewhiskey empty and dangling from his long fingers, and his eyes were trained directly on her. Hermione didn't know why, but the idea of him watching her made her suddenly self conscious, and she felt her movements slow drastically.

The music seemed to filter away and her eyes connected with his and, to her surprise, he didn't look away from her. It wasn't until Eleanor was grabbing her arm excitedly and tugging her into an unexpected embrace that Hermione was brought back down to the world, and she noticed that the music had indeed dimmed as the speakers began playing a new song. When Hermione glanced back over her shoulder at the couch, Malfoy had disappeared.

The rest of the night passed by in a happy blur of voices and faces. Hermione didn't know how many cups she had drank, or how many times Eleanor had forced her and Padma into a group hug, or how many times Derek seemed to sizzle up to her whenever she was conveniently alone, but she didn't so much care. Her brain was happily empty and her skin was nice and feverish and her eyes felt like they were alight with their own fire.

It wasn't until much later, when Padma had thrown up and Eleanor was holding her hair back while flirting with some guy, and the alcohol seemed to be making her vision fuzzy, that Hermione suddenly realized how stuffy the room had become and left. She didn't know how she had managed to make it all the way to the first floor, but the music of the party drifted away behind her, and she relished in the silence that soon over came her.

Her skin feeling hot and her cheeks feeling flushed, Hermione pushed open the door in the entrance hall and stepped out onto the concrete steps, into the cool breeze of the night. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, still feeling the remnants of light air, before she looked around the grounds with contentment.

When her eyes first landed on him, she wasn't really sure who she was looking at, until he turned to look at her, and she noticed a moment later that she had tripped down a step and was now sitting with her legs sprawled out awkwardly in front of her.

Malfoy watched her for a long moment as she rubbed at her back and tried to remember how she had ended up on the floor, before suddenly he was striding towards her. He had been at the bottom of the steps, staring off into the village and drinking a bottle of Firewhiskey alone, and he ascended the steps until he stopped at the one just in front of her. Hermione glanced at the knees of his slacks before looking up at him. The light from the moon above reflected off his hair and the yellow-purple patches on his high cheekbones stood out boldly against his pale eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked dumbly, forgetting momentarily that she was sitting on the ground.

Malfoy seemed to hesitate, looking her over before he stooped down and leaned towards her. For a moment, his face was so close to hers and his cologne wafted into her nose, that Hermione felt her cheeks heat up so fast and she instantly leaned away from him. He paused, eyed her carefully, and then proceeded to grab something from behind her. When he straightened up again, he was holding the wrap that Eleanor had tied around her hair at the beginning of the night. It had seemed so long ago.

He held it out to her and Hermione had to really look at it carefully before she could reach a hand out and take it from him.

"If you ask me that again Granger, I might have to hex you into oblivion."

Hermione looked up at him, and perhaps it was just the Firewhiskey she had consumed and the moonlight casting shadows on his face, but Malfoy looked incredibly sad and sulky. Unable to come up with anything to say, or not trusting herself to, Hermione folded the wrap up over and over before sticking it into the pocket of Eleanor's denim jacket. Silence passed between them, in which Hermione stared at her knees and Malfoy stared off across the grounds, occasionally drinking from his bottle.

Finally, after what felt like ages, Malfoy shifted on his feet and sat himself down on the step beside her. Hermione looked at him in surprise, but when he had moved, she quickly noticed a group of students heading towards the steps that they were occupying. She wondered briefly if he had sat down so she wouldn't look so stupid for sitting there alone, but quickly pushed the idea from her mind.

The world had begun to twinkle and tilt, and Hermione wondered how long they had been outside for. Neither of them said anything, Malfoy sipping from his bottle and Hermione gazing around the grounds, feeling that sense of contentment slowly coming over her again.

A little while later, Malfoy was the one that spoke.

"It's late."

Hermione looked at him and he was standing to his feet. He turned to walk up the steps and Hermione struggled to pull herself to her feet. She had to find Padma and Eleanor, for she didn't have a key to get back into her dorm. She had left it on her windowsill while they had been getting ready, assuming that when she came back, she would be coming back with them.

Maybe hearing her struggle made him stop, but suddenly Malfoy was back, standing by her shoulder and watching her cautiously as she struggled to pull herself to her feet. He didn't offer to help her, as he continued to take sips from his bottle, his free hand shoved deep into his pocket, but he stayed by her side, watching her, and he didn't utter a single insult.

When Hermione finally steadied herself by holding onto the freezing railing, she looked up at Malfoy and said lamely, "I don't know where Eleanor and Padma are."

Malfoy seemed to sigh at this, giving the grounds a once over as though he expected them to just magically turn up, before he turned and started up the steps into the building, this time at a much slower pace.

"Come on Granger."

Hermione's mind was numb and unthinking as she followed him, carefully eyeing her own feet to avoid slipping. She hadn't realized how drunk she was until that moment. So drunk, in fact, that she didn't even spare a second to be embarrassed that it was Malfoy who was seeing her like this. She followed him into the building and towards the medical wing, and up the multiple flights of stairs that she had come down what felt like only moments ago. But, judging by how cold she suddenly felt and the goose bumps on her legs, she assumed that it had actually been much longer since she had disappeared from the party upstairs. Malfoy didn't say anything on their short journey, and he never offered to help her when she stumbled on the steps, but, she noticed, he also didn't leave her behind, and Hermione didn't know why this meant something to her.

By the time they had arrived at the fifth floor corridor, it was mostly empty. On the ground to the right sat two girls, one was crying and the other looked extremely irritated and tired, probably from having to stay up and take care of her friend. Off in the distance, Hermione wondered vaguely what the repetitive thumping sounds were, before she was quickly distracted by arriving at Malfoy's room.

He pushed the door open and Hermione was somewhat relieved to find that it was quiet and almost completely empty. One of the beds, the one with the muggle band poster hanging over it, was occupied by a figure that Hermione didn't know, and on the other side of the room Derek sat, untying his shoes and trying to stay upright. The floor was covered in cups and other bits of trash that Hermione couldn't make out, and the twinkling lights on the ceiling had been extinguished. The only source of light was the lamp on Malfoy's desk, which had been switched on and cast shadows around the room.

Hermione stood awkwardly by the littered couch while Malfoy set his almost empty bottle of Firewhiskey beside his pile of textbooks and removed his coat that she hadn't noticed he had been wearing, draping it over the back of his desk chair.

"Where's Eleanor and Padma," Malfoy asked in a mumbled voice to Derek, though he didn't look at him, instead busying himself with kicking some of the cups away from his bed.

"Dunno," Derek replied in a tired, sagging voice as he finally managed to remove his shoes and chuck them under his bed. He fell back onto his pillows without another word and Hermione was sure that he had fallen asleep instantaneously.

Malfoy sighed, running a hand through his hair so that it looked rumpled and stuck up in multiple places, before he started for the door again.

"Come on Granger," he mumbled to her and Hermione, not knowing what else to do or where else she would go, followed after him again.

It was suddenly very quiet amongst the corridors, as everyone around seemed to be falling into bed and passing out. Hermione's eyelids drooped and she couldn't believe how fast she had become so tired. The crying girl and her friend were gone, and the lights in the corridor had been dimmed. Hermione suddenly became very anxious.

"Is there a curfew here? Will we get into trouble for being out so late?"

Malfoy made a noise somewhere between a grunt of annoyance and a laugh of amusement as he started down the stairwell. He didn't grace her with an answer as they wandered the length of the school back to the law wing, and before Hermione was fully aware of what was happening, they had arrived at her door. She didn't have time to question how he knew where she lived, completely forgetting about their first day when she had run into him, before he was knocking on the door, leaning against the wall and glancing over at her.

Their eyes connected for a brief moment as the echoes of his knocks moved down the hall before the dorm door opened and a blurry eyed looking Eleanor was peaking out into the hallway.

"Wassit?" she said, glancing first at Malfoy and then looking at Hermione before she disappeared back into the darkness, leaving the door open a crack.

Hermione stood in the hallway, staring at the opened door. Malfoy pushed himself away from the wall and the movement caused Hermione to look over at him. The buzz she had been feeling all night seemed to be leaving her, and she was suddenly very aware of how bizarre their whole interaction had been. She noticed how tired Malfoy looked, and how rumpled his clothes and hair were, and how pale his skin looked compared to the bruising under his eyes.

Malfoy indicated to the door with his chin before he brushed past her and started back down the hall. Hermione watched him go, feeling like she should say something but not knowing what to say, and before she could make up her mind, he had pushed open the door to the stairwell and disappeared.

* * *

Hermione spent most of Saturday lying in bed, recovering from the night before and wondering about Malfoy. Eleanor seemed not to remember that she had opened the door to see them both together, for Hermione was sure that if she had she would have said something by now. Padma, however, had the worst out of all of them. She could barely lift her head from her pillow without feeling dizzy, and Hermione and Eleanor conjured up curtains to hang over the window to block out the sun.

It was the first time, Hermione had realized, that she had a proper night out with girlfriends, and though as bizarre as it had been, Hermione felt incredibly happy about it all day.

Eleanor talked about them dancing, and the way she described it made it sound like they had done something magical. She talked about how light the world had felt and how happy everyone had been and Hermione pictured it over and over again in her mind. However, every time she pictured them dancing, she also pictured catching eyes with Malfoy, and every moment with him later that night, when the alcohol had begun to wane off of her and she could remember everything quite clearly.

To say she was surprised by his actions would have been an understatement. True, he hadn't actually been friendly with her, nor, she remembered with annoyance, had he helped her at all when she had stumbled, but he also hadn't left her on her own in the cold, and he even directed her back towards her dorm when she had been feeling helpless and sluggish. She didn't know what to make of this, and she kept it a secret from Padma and Eleanor, who would have been all too happy to overthink it for her, she was sure.

By Sunday morning, Padma had recovered some of her strength and Hermione felt the stack of homework on her desk staring her down from the moment she got up. After dressing and returning Eleanor's clothes, Hermione headed down to the first floor for the library to do her essay for the introductory to law class.

She had just entered the library and sat down when she noticed Derek heading towards her. Hermione stiffened in her seat, instantly regretting her decision when Derek pulled to a stop beside her and gave her what she assumed was supposed to be a charming smile. It was hard to take him seriously, however, when he was wearing sweatpants and sandals.

"Hey Hermione, have fun on Friday?"

Hermione wondered if he was going to ask her to pay for the alcohol she had drank when she nodded at him. "Yeah, it was fun," she said, trying to appear busy as she pulled out her textbooks and spare pieces of parchment.

"Listen," said Derek, in a tone that reminded Hermione of an adult talking in an amused, patient tone to a child, and Hermione's eyes snapped up to look at him. "Did Eleanor say anything about me?"

Hermione blinked up at him, bewildered by this conversation, before she shook her head, frowning a little. "No, I don't think so, why?"

Derek looked momentarily shocked at this and he seemed unable to come up with anything to say for a while before finally he gave a little shrug, looking sheepish. "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to make sure she wasn't saying anything, that's all."

Hermione eyed him carefully, but before she had much time to distinguish his odd behavior, he was pulling out the chair beside her and sitting down. Hermione tried not to groan and roll her eyes. At this rate, she would never get any of her homework done.

"So, what happened with you and Malfoy?"

This was quite possibly the last topic Hermione wanted to discuss with anybody, especially with Malfoy's roommate. Because nothing _had_ happened. They had barely spoken to each other Friday night. And yet, somehow it seemed like something _had_ happened, though she doubted she could explain this to an outsider like Derek, who didn't know anything of the long history between them, and who didn't know just how strange last night had been.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, stalling for time.

Derek shrugged, and she couldn't quite figure out the expression on his face. "It's just surprising to me, that's all. You seem like such a nice girl, and Malfoy's just a bit of a wank."

Hermione blinked at him, again at a loss for words and not knowing what to say. Derek seemed to interpret her silence differently, and clearly thought he had offended her.

"I mean, to each their own of course, maybe he's a good lay or something, and I know it's really none of my business but I just thought I should warn you."

Hermione found it incredibly comical that this man, who had known Malfoy for little over a week, was warning _her_ of what a major prick he could be. She couldn't help but flush at the idea that Derek seemed to think her and Malfoy had shagged last night. Before she could calm herself down enough to correct him, he was suddenly getting to his feet.

"I'll see you around though, alright?" he gave her a wave and started out of the library, leaving Hermione to stare incredulously after him.


	4. The One with Malfoy's Paper

**Author's Note:**

 **Sadly, this story isn't doing as well as I was hoping and I'm wondering if I should discontinue it, but I'm very glad that some people enjoy it enough to put it on their follow list. I hope you all are liking it so far!**

 **xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

On Monday, Hermione sent another letter to Harry and Ron, telling them about her classes and asking them how their hunt for giants was going. At the bottom, she let them know that she missed them and that she would send Ron the toffee at Christmas time. She did not mention the party or her time spent with Malfoy. She didn't know how she was supposed to put that sort of thing into words, much less into a letter. Besides, there was nothing to tell, and she didn't want Harry and Ron to worry over nothing. They had enough going on with their own lives.

The days seemed to drag on and Hermione realized, for the first time in her life, how incredibly dull school actually was. She had always loved Hogwarts and her professors and spending time with Harry and Ron. She even enjoyed going out to watch their Quidditch matches. But the University of Wizarding Law and Medical Practices did not have a Quidditch team, nor did their professors seem too fond about getting to know their students on a personal level. Hermione passed her days by focusing on her notes and looking forward to meals, where she would always sit with Eleanor and Padma.

Every now and then, Eleanor would invite a stranger to their table. A girl from her class or a boy that had been flirting with her earlier that day. Hermione noticed, with some envy, that Eleanor was very good at meeting people and making new friends, though she never seemed to hang around with the same person for very long. She liked change, and it was a surprise that she subjected herself to sit with Hermione and Padma for every meal.

Other than their meal times together Hermione rarely saw her roommates outside of their dormitory, and she was beginning to feel incredibly lonely at university.

On Wednesday afternoon, after finishing her Human Rights Muggle Versus Wizards lecture, which she found out was three and a half hours long, Hermione wandered the corridors, trying desperately to cheer herself up. Being alone started to remind her of the times when her, Harry and Ron had gotten into rows and would refuse to speak to each other for days on end. Those times had nearly driven her mad, and she was beginning to feel the same way now.

A flash of blonde passed in her peripheral vision and Hermione stopped short, turning instantly to peer curiously through the door of a classroom. She hadn't realized that she had wandered to the medical wing of the building.

Malfoy stood at the front of a class, giving a presentation of some sorts about the advantages of wizard maladies over muggle maladies. His shoulders were very straight and the bruises around his eyes seemed to have almost completely healed. His gaze never wavered from the audience in front of him which, Hermione noted with some surprise, was far larger than her own classes were. A stern looking man in his mid-thirties with graying hair stood off to the side, a quick-quotes quill taking notes over his shoulder as he muttered to it under his breath. His gaze was intimidating, but Malfoy seemed unaware that he was even there.

Desperate, perhaps, to be around a familiar face, Hermione edged the door open and slipped into the room, glancing down at the large lecture hall. Every seat was filled with people and every head was trained on Malfoy.

"… the advantages of such maladies have been reported through centuries of wizards, claiming that the wizard body is built differently than those of muggles, and therefore require specific aid and treatment. The muggles who were unwillingly subjected to these magical treatments in 1738 in a series of underground, illegal experiments were described as 'grotesque' and 'mutated.' As such, the use of muggle maladies that have not been experimented on wizards is immediately considered ineffective."

The crowd gave polite applause as Malfoy gathered up the papers on the podium in front of him, though Hermione was sure he hadn't once looked down at them, and headed over to the stern looking man off to his left. The man mumbled something to him, taking the parchment that the quick-quotes quill had been writing on and handing it to him. The rest of the students in the hall were beginning to pack up and leave, and by the time Malfoy had finished talking to his professor, the lecture hall was practically empty.

Hermione shifted awkwardly on her feet, wondering whether she should stay and try to make some sort of conversation, or perhaps thank him for leading her safely back to her dorm Friday night, before she quickly decided against it and hurried for the door. She didn't know what she had been thinking. Though her mind was still filled with their puzzling interaction on Friday night, that didn't mean she could just go up to him during the school day and strike up friendly conversation. She was still Hermione and he was still Malfoy. Being in a different school didn't change anything.

The crowd at the door seemed to be working against her, preventing her quick escape, and before Hermione had even gotten to the threshold, a voice spoke from behind her.

"Granger?"

Hermione winced at the familiar drawl before she turned to glance over her shoulder, gripping her bag strap tightly. This was the second time Malfoy had caught her snooping after him and Hermione felt a blush creeping up into her cheeks.

"Um, yes?" She asked, when he merely stared at her, a pale eyebrow raised.

"You're not a med student," he said matter-of-factly, waiting for her to explain herself. Hermione's cheeks burned even brighter and her stomach twisted uncomfortably. This was the first time she was seeing him since she had been too drunk to walk, and the memory of it made her feel stupid and sheepish.

"Oh, well, no I'm not," she finished lamely, her palms beginning to sweat. What was wrong with her? It was only Malfoy after all. Desperately trying to come up with something to distract the conversation, she pressed on as though it were perfectly normal that she were standing in his classroom. "That was an interesting presentation. Though, slightly prejudice."

Malfoy's other eyebrow leaped up to the join the first and he stared at her for a long time, his face void of any sort of emotion. "How so?"

Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, but when Malfoy seemed unfazed by her reaction, she quickly hurried on. "Well, the bit about wizards bodies being superior to muggles-"

"I said they were built differently," Malfoy cut in, hoisting his bag over his shoulder and shoving his free hand into the pocket of his slacks. Hermione realized that she had never seen Malfoy wear anything other than a uniform that closely resembled their Hogwarts' uniforms. "but, to be fair, the body of a wizard is built more superior to those of muggles."

Hermione gaped at him as he moved around her and started out into the hall. Her stomach twisted, this time with fury, and she turned on her heels before storming after him.

"Excuse me?" she squeaked out as she followed the bob of his luminescent hair through the throng of students.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist over it Granger. It's not personal. It's a fact." Malfoy said over his shoulder as he pushed open the door to the stairwell and started down the steps. Hermione followed after him, hurrying to keep up with his long strides.

"Proven by who? Some dark wizard from back in the days of the wizarding war?"

Malfoy paused halfway down the stairwell and turned on her. His reaction was so unexpected that Hermione nearly tripped and ran into him, catching herself on the wall and staring down at his irritated expression.

"Proven by the seven medical Healers sourced in my research paper. If you'd like to check my work Granger, and prove to me that I'm right and that you're naïve, I'd be more than happy to let you look at it."

Hermione stared at him for a long moment, wondering if he was joking, but his rigid jaw and unwavering gaze told her that he was not. In fact, he was actually challenging her. Pulling herself up to her full height and extending her chin, still failing to overcome his lanky stature, Hermione huffed.

"Fine, I will. And I'll prove to _you_ that _I'm_ right and you're prejudice."

Malfoy's eyes squinted up at her before he swung his bag down to his feet and bent to unzip it. He riffled through his textbooks and parchments as a stream of students moved around them before yanking from it a three-foot long essay. He held it out to her stiffly and Hermione, unable to think of what else to do and already in too deep to turn back, snatched it from him.

"There. Now you'll see that wizards are superior to muggles and that you're just as naïve as you've always been." Malfoy re-zipped his bag, threw it over his shoulder and stood to his full height, before turning and continuing down the stairwell. "I'll need it back by tomorrow night." He called back to her, before his lithe form disappeared through the door on the first floor.

"If you didn't actually want to read it over, then why did you take it from him?" Padma asked over the top of her textbook that she read as she ate her dinner. Not having heard back from Harry and Ron yet, and doubting that she would ever be able to explain to them in full detail her bizarre encounters with Malfoy through a letter, Hermione had settled for confiding in Padma and Eleanor at the dinner table that night, though she still refrained from telling them about Friday.

Hermione opened her mouth to answer, her cheeks flaming, when Eleanor cut in with a high pitched laugh.

"I still think you're attracted to him," Eleanor said cheekily, smirking over at Hermione and waving her fork in her face. "Yooou think he's cute. That's obviously why you keep following him around."

Hermione had never felt more impatient and infuriated, even when arguing with Ron. "I do _not_ think that Malfoy is cute Eleanor."

Padma turned the page of her textbook and nodded her head slowly, taking a small bite of her toast. "I agree with Hermione," she said slowly, as though tasting the words as she said them.

"Thank you Padma, you of all people would-"

" _But_ ," Padma cut in, finally putting her textbook down and turning her attention to her roommates. "I do think that you're running to Malfoy because you want something familiar, and arguing with him is the only familiar thing around here."

Eleanor didn't seem at all convinced. "Haven't you two ever heard of that saying _opposites attract_?"

"You just want Hermione to be attracted to Malfoy so you have some real life romance to follow, and not that trashy stuff in _Witch Weekly_ ," Padma said teasingly.

Eleanor made a little noise of astonishment, placing her hand over her heart as though she had been fatally wounded. "Lily Edgewin's one night stand with the lead singer of the Weird Sisters is not _trashy_ Padma."

Hermione and Padma shared a glance before breaking out into big grins. Eleanor huffed at them all throughout the remainder of dinner, informing them that the _Witch Weekly_ was one of the most accurately sourced news platforms in the whole of the wizarding world. Though Hermione highly doubted that that was true, she decided to keep her opinion to herself. At least Eleanor had found something else to talk about besides the 'attraction' between her and Malfoy.

By the time the three of them had retreated back to their dorm for the night, Malfoy's essay seemed to be burning a hole through Hermione's bag. She quickly sat down at her desk while Eleanor yanked out the newest edition of _Witch Weekly_ and began forcing Padma to look at it. Hermione pulled out her textbooks and Malfoy's essay and spread them out over her desk top.

She stared down at his name, scrawled in tiny, curvy letters at the top of the parchment. It felt strange to be seeing his handwriting on a parchment on her desk, and she timidly touched the edges, as though it were going to send a spell her way at any moment. When the parchment remained harmless to her touch, Hermione straightened herself up and began to read.

She was surprised to find that Malfoy's attentiveness to detail could almost rival her own. Having been so used to reading Harry and Ron's essays, which were mediocre at best, it was a bit of a relief to read a well written essay. Though, of course, she would never admit this to Malfoy's face, or to anyone for that matter.

It was nearly an hour later that Hermione looked up from Malfoy's essay, her quill hovering over it, ready to correct anything. To her disappointment, she had not found anything worth correcting. His grammar was flawless and, to her utter dismay, all of his facts and sources checked out. She could already see Malfoy's smug look when she thought of returning his essay to him tomorrow evening, completely unmarked. Feeling her cheeks light up again, Hermione stuffed Malfoy's essay away and went to bed in a huff.

Hermione stared at the gleaming plaque on the door in front of her. 5A16 looked back at her and she could distinctly hear voices on the other side. Feeling ridiculously nervous and hating herself for it, Hermione knocked on the door, Malfoy's essay clasped tight in her fingers. There was a moment of silence before the door opened and Derek's square face peaked out at her.

"Hey Hermione," Derek said, opening the door further. Hermione resisted the sudden urge to roll her eyes when she realized that he was shirtless and doing nothing to hide it. "What's up?"

"Er," Hermione tore her eyes away from Derek's flat stomach and focused intently on his face. "Is Malfoy around?"

Derek seemed to hesitate, the smile on his face falling away a little, before he hitched it right back up and beamed at her. "He's not here, no. Maybe check the library?"

Hermione blinked up at him. She hadn't expected Malfoy not to be there. "Oh, alright, thank you." She quickly turned, hoping that he wouldn't pull her into another uncomfortable conversation. From what she could remember about Friday night, and their embarrassing talk Sunday morning in the library, in which Derek had assumed that her and Malfoy had _shagged_ , she had been hoping not to have another with him any time soon.

"Hey, what do you need him for anyway?"

Hermione winced and tried not to sigh impatiently as she turned back to look at him. Why did he care why Hermione was looking for Malfoy? She assumed, after Derek had punched him across the face, that he and Malfoy didn't get along too well.

"I was looking over his essay for one of his classes and he said he needed it back by tonight," Hermione said, awkwardly showing him the parchment in her fingers to prove she wasn't lying. She had an awful feeling that Derek thought she was coming up here looking for Malfoy for some other reason.

Derek eyed her for a moment and Hermione tried not to look guilty, though she didn't know why she would be. It all felt so wrong to be dealing with Malfoy in any sort of social situation.

"Oh, well, say hi to Eleanor for me if you would."

Hermione's eyebrows pulled together questionably but she didn't ask, mostly because she was trying to avoid furthering the conversation with him. She would have to bring it to Eleanor's attention that Derek kept mentioning her every time she saw him. Waving goodbye, Hermione quickly started off down the hall.

She found him in the library around five that afternoon. He was sitting at a table in the very back, multiple textbooks opened around him, scribbling fiercely on a piece of parchment. His blonde hair looked rumpled and stuck up in odd angles, and Hermione watched him from afar, debating on whether she should interrupt him or not. She gripped his essay in her hands and turned to leave, but the sound of his voice instantly stopped her.

"So, Granger. Are you as naïve as I've always known you to be?"

Hermione's lips pursed together into a thin line of annoyance and she wished more than anything that she had the courage to rip his essay in half right in front of him. She turned to look back at him. He had stopped his furious writing and was now looking up at her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to say something.

After jiggling on her feet for a few moments, trying to come up with something bad to say about his essay, she finally sighed in defeat, her shoulders slumping. For the first time since arriving at university and running into him, Malfoy smirked at her. He placed his quill down and leaned back in his chair until the two front legs lifted off the floor, putting his hands behind his head and looking incredibly smug. He looked, Hermione thought, like he had before the war. Young and relaxed.

"It was pretty good, wasn't it?" he carried on, giving a little shrug of indifference. "It's not my best work, of course, but as you can see, I'm quite intelligent."

Hermione snorted at his tone and rolled her eyes. "You? Intelligent? You're about as intelligent as a Blast-Ended Skrewt."

"Good one," he chided sarcastically before holding out a pale hand towards her.

Hermione stared at it incredulously and for a brief moment, she thought he wanted her to take hold of it.

"Granger," Malfoy said, bringing her quickly back down to the ground. "My essay."

Hermione rushed forward and forced it into his outstretched hand, trying hard not to grimace at her own thoughts. He glanced it over, as though expecting her to have spilled something on it or left some type of stain. When it appeared as clean and unmarked as when he had given it to her, much to her annoyance, he opened up his bag and slipped it inside. The front legs of his chair fell forward and he picked up his quill again, stretching his arms out before bending his head over his parchment again.

Hermione shifted on her feet, staring at his bent head, before she glanced around the library. With the term fully in swing and homework starting to pile up, many of the students had taken to coming to the library to do their work. This meant, much to Hermione's disappointment, that by five most of the tables were filled up.

Resigning to the fact that she'd have to do her homework on her cramped desk in her dorm, Hermione started for the library doors.

"Are you going to sit down?"

Hermione froze. She thought, perhaps, that maybe she had imagined it. But no, the sounds of Malfoy's quill scratching on his parchment froze the same moment Hermione had stopped walking. An awkward silence passed between them, in which Hermione refused to turn around and Malfoy refused to keep writing his essay.

Finally, Hermione looked at him. Malfoy kept his head bent over his parchment, as though concentrating on something very intently, though his eyes did not move and his quill sat suspended in his fingers. The air between them seemed heavy and Hermione fidgeted with her shoulder strap for something to do.

Had Malfoy just invited her to sit and study with him? Hermione eyed him carefully and noted the tinge of pink on the back of his neck before she glanced around the library once more. All the other tables were indeed cramped with four to seven students at each table, all talking over opened textbooks and bits of parchment. Some were working diligently, contemplating ideas with each other and writing down theories. Others were laughing loudly and throwing wads of paper. Hermione did not recognize most of them, and the ones that she did recognize were students from her classes whom she had never spoken a word to. And then there was Malfoy, alone in the back of the room, his textbooks taking up a large portion of his table.

Was Malfoy feeling as lonely as she was? The thought seemed ridiculous to Hermione, though, the more she thought about it the more she supposed it could be possible. When Hermione and Ron had gone back to Hogwarts to finish their education, they had been surrounded by fellow Gryffindors and friends from the war. Malfoy had come back as well, to a house that no longer seemed to exist, with only one or two other Slytherins in his year. Thinking back to that time, Hermione could remember seeing Malfoy alone most of the time, sitting in the Great Hall or in their shared classes together, being uncharacteristically reserved. Hermione had always assumed that he had just learned to keep his mouth shut now that his cronies Crabbe and Goyle weren't there to protect him, but perhaps it had been something more.

Taking a hesitant step towards the table, her stomach doing nervous twists for reasons she couldn't understand, Hermione pointed to the chair opposite him.

"Here?" she asked quietly.

Malfoy reached across the table, still not looking at her, and moved his textbooks out of the way, clearing a spot. Hermione stared at the spot as though he had just cursed it before turning her eyes to look back at him. He had gone back to writing, his cheeks now tinged the same pink as his neck.

She thought about what Padma kept saying about Malfoy, and how Hermione kept going to him as something familiar to keep her from feeling lonely. Maybe that was why Malfoy hadn't left her alone last Friday. Maybe that was why, despite their mutual dislike for each other and all their history, he had helped her back to her dorm. Maybe Malfoy was doing the same thing she was, and reluctantly allowing himself to have conversations with her as way to make himself feel less alone.

Hermione pulled out the chair across from him and sat herself down slowly. Malfoy pretended like she wasn't there, flipping through his textbook for a source to site in his essay. Taking the hint, Hermione unloaded her bag onto the table and flipped open her textbook to the chapter on wizard law reforms before she too started her essay in silence.

They didn't speak to each other for the next three hours, each scribbling on their parchments and turning pages in their textbooks. Sometimes one of them would stop to rotate their wrists, but they were careful not to give each other eye contact. Though it was uncomfortable and difficult at first to focus on her work, Hermione couldn't help but feel a bit better. Sure, it was Malfoy of all people, but at least she wasn't sitting there alone.

At eight o'clock, Malfoy set down his quill and began to roll up his parchment. Hermione tried not to notice him packing up, and she tried not to over analyze the feeling of dread creeping into the pit of her stomach.

Malfoy stood to his feet, throwing his bag over his shoulder and looking at the top of her head. Hermione glanced up at him and he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Later Granger," he said after a moment, before walking briskly away. Hermione watched him go, the saunter in his steps and his bag bumping against his lower back before he turned the corner and disappeared from the room, leaving her on her own.

The loneliness slowly began to creep in again, surrounding the air around her. She hated herself for wishing that Malfoy had stayed just a little bit longer.


	5. The One with the Late Night Studying

**Author's Note:**

 **Hello all! I just wanted to thank everybody for their kind comments and private messages encouraging me to continue with the story. I really didn't think that many people were interested in it, but seeing as some people are really liking the idea, I've decided that I could spend some more time with it, even if it doesn't get a lot of attention.**

 **Thank you all so much! I hope you're ready for some serious drama within in the next few chapters!**

 **xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

"Why does he keep asking if Eleanor is talking about him?" Padma asked over breakfast on Saturday morning. Hermione had been so distracted with everything that had been going on with Malfoy that she forgot until that morning to mention to Eleanor and Padma about Derek's strange requests.

To Eleanor, apparently, the idea wasn't so strange at all.

She let out a gleeful little laugh, smiling very proudly about something as she buttered her pancakes.

"What is it?" Hermione urged. She had never been one for gossip in Hogwarts. She had been far too busy running around with Harry and Ron saving the wizarding world. But there was no dark wizard to fear and no essays to write, and Hermione found herself craving anything that could keep her occupied for longer than ten minutes.

Eleanor looked at both of them in turn, grinning madly, before she glanced over her shoulder, as though checking to make sure that they were not going to get bombarded by the hulking ex-Quidditch player. Finally, she turned back to look at them and bent her head forward, as though she were about to reveal some great secret to them. Padma and Hermione leaned in to hear her.

"I shagged him," Eleanor said triumphantly.

Hermione's eyebrows shot up in surprise and, though she kept it to herself, slight disgust. Derek was such a typical Neanderthal, reminding her incredibly of Cormac McLaggen, a nasty boy who had tried insistently to snog her all throughout sixth year. What had made Eleanor do such a thing? Padma seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione.

" _Why_?" she exclaimed, her toast forgotten in her hand.

Eleanor took a bite of her buttered pancakes and took her time chewing them before she said, very slowly as though explaining her logic to a child, "He's so big headed. He really believes that he can have any girl he wants, right under his finger tips all the time. He thinks he can get with anyone."

"So, to show him up, you… let him get with you?" Hermione asked uncertainly.

Eleanor shook her head with a little smile playing at her lips, as though Hermione were being naïve. "Yes, I did, and I haven't spoken to him or about him since." Eleanor looked positively mischievous as she leaned in and asked eagerly, "It's killing him isn't it? Every time he asks about me, and I've not given him the time of day."

Hermione thought back to her unwilling encounters with Derek. She supposed that she could see what Eleanor was on about. Derek did seem disheartened and a little concerned every time Hermione acted surprised when he asked about Eleanor. He must have assumed, like so many guys of his type do, that after having slept with Eleanor that she would have gone and told all her friends and gushed about it. Hermione couldn't help but feel a little proud of Eleanor for keeping quiet about this for so long, even if she didn't agree with her actions in the slightest. At least she really had committed to it.

"But," Eleanor continued, as Padma laughed beside her at the idea of it all, "this doesn't count as talking about him, so if he asks again, don't bring it up."

Hermione rolled her eyes a little. As if she'd want to be put back in another situation where Derek could ask her more uncomfortable questions about Malfoy.

She had just been about to ask Padma if she had finished her essays when the man in question entered the Mess Hall. Hermione couldn't help it. She turned on instinct and caught sight of him sauntering towards a free table, a massive textbook lodged under his arm.

Since their study session in the library on Wednesday, Hermione had gone back and found him waiting there every night, a whole table reserved for him and his books, and her, when she timidly walked over to see what he would do. Without ever looking up at her, he always removed his books from the spot across from him, allowing her a place to sit and do her work. Hermione had never been more caught up in her homework in her life. Though outside the library, Hermione never saw Malfoy, and they never spoke when they were doing homework, she still felt better about being alone at university.

"So," Padma's voice called her back from her thoughts and she turned to look at her. "Where have you been sneaking off to every evening Hermione?" Padma's voice seemed conversational enough, and if Hermione hadn't seen her sneak a glimpse over at Malfoy, who sat two tables down from them, Hermione would have doubted that she had suspected anything. Of course, she was dealing with two very gossip prone witches, who seemed to be able to smell drama from a mile away.

"We've just been," Hermione hesitated, but she knew there was no point in lying anymore. Besides, if she did, then it would make her look guilty of hiding something completely more sinister. She gave a little shrug. "We've just been doing homework in the library."

Eleanor looked like she wanted to say something, but a quick jab in the side from Padma made her stop.

"That's nice," Padma said, eyeing her carefully. Hermione felt her cheeks flush a little and she quickly ducked her head to look down at her plate.

It wasn't until later that evening that Padma suggested they take a trip into the village. Around four, the three of them had put on their jackets and were heading down the stairwell, listening to Eleanor talk animatedly about some wizard band that was coming to their university around Christmas time. Hermione had never heard of the band, though to be fair the only wizard band she really knew of were the Weird Sisters.

"They're from another university I think," Eleanor babbled on as they stepped out in the breeze of October. "They're supposed to be really good. You guys will come with me, won't you?"

Padma and Hermione exchanged glances.

"Of course we will," Padma said, because it was nice that even though Eleanor had all of these other friends, she still decided to ask her roommates to come along with her.

They spent the whole day wandering the village, which was slowly being prepped for Halloween. Padma and Eleanor practically melted at the sight of a costume store opening up for the season at the end of Crescent Avenue, and they forced Hermione to go inside at once. Most of the store was still being unboxed, but numerous costumes and masks hung along the walls in the back, waiting to be tried on and purchased.

"We simply _must_ attend a Halloween party," Padma said excitedly, placing a muggle styled Day of the Dead mask over her face and peering into the full length mirror at the back. Hermione shifted, crossing her arms over her chest and smiling as the girls ran around like Ron would have in a candy store. She had never attended a Halloween party before, at least not the kind that no doubt Padma was talking about. The kind where everyone dressed up and girls wore really revealing costumes and got really drunk. She couldn't help but wonder if she could invite Harry and Ron to visit her for such an event. If they weren't busy, of course.

"What would you go as Hermione?" Eleanor asked, as she pulled down a really awful, puffy pink dress that might have been a princess costume or could have been a muggle's prom dress. She held it up to the mirror, and the width of it made her look even skinnier than she already was.

"Er, I don't know," Hermione said, running her fingers along the fabric of some hairy costume that she couldn't make out. "I've never really gone to a Halloween party, except when I was little."

"What did you go as then?" Padma asked, looking extremely happy when she came across a discounted bag of Halloween make up.

"Oh," Hermione's cheeks flared up a little. "Well, one year I went as a mummy."

Eleanor looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Hermione, did you ever have any girl friends growing up?"

Hermione wished she didn't have to answer. She had never found it odd before that during her younger years she had very little friends, and once she arrived at Hogwarts the only people she really hung out with were Harry and Ron. She had never thought much of it before, but now Eleanor was making her feel a little put out that she hadn't experienced what all the other girls had experienced.

"Don't worry Hermione, we can help you figure out what to wear, just like we did Friday," Padma said, giving her a smile.

Hermione tried to smile back through her bundle of nerves. What would Ron think of her when he found out about all the things she had been up to? Drinking at parties and wearing short skirts and even deciding to dress up for Halloween with girl friends. Surely he couldn't still look at her and think of her as just his bookworm friend. He'd have to realize that what they had in the Chamber of Secrets during the throes of the war was special, and important. And that he should open his eyes and just admit it to himself and to her.

It took Padma and Eleanor several hours to groom the Halloween store, several pastry shops and coffee houses, and for Hermione to find the toffee with non-melting chocolate that Ron had asked for. By the time they trekked back up the streets to the university, the sun had disappeared and the street lights had come on.

Since it was a Saturday night, many students were out and about, talking in large groups and laughing loudly, sharing drinks outside a pub. Eleanor was called away by a group of guys sitting outside a particularly rowdy pub across the street from the university, and she quickly bid Hermione and Padma goodbye before hurrying towards them.

"Any plans for tonight Hermione?" Padma asked, as they continued on their way up the path towards the front doors. Hermione felt herself laugh at the question.

"No, of course not," she said, not at all feeling sorry for herself. She wasn't particularly interested in mingling with people she didn't know, as she was tired from their evening out shopping. "What about you?"

Padma gave a little shrug, and she seemed to be struggling with something. It wasn't until they reached the fifth floor that she finally spoke, in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Well, do you remember that girl that we ran into on the way to the party Friday night? Eleanor's friend? The blonde one."

Hermione didn't need for her to clarify who she was talking about. She could picture the tall blonde in her head, with her sleek hair and form fitted purple dress, and painted on smile. She nodded for Padma to continue.

"Well, she's invited me to hang out tonight with her and some friends," Padma seemed nervous about this, though Hermione couldn't figure out why. She decided that she wouldn't ask.

"That's nice," she said, turning the key in the door and stepping into her room, depositing Ron's box of treats on her desk.

Padma spent the next half hour getting ready. She magically straightened her hair and put it back into a plait before applying her makeup, all the while Hermione changed into her pajamas and curled up into a ball under her blankets with a muggle novel that she had been trying to read for weeks, though she hadn't had the time. By the time ten o'clock came, Padma was looking over at Hermione anxiously.

"Do you want to come Hermione?"

Hermione peered at her over the top of her novel and shook her head, giving Padma a reassuring smile. "It's okay Padma, really. I don't mind staying in by myself."

Padma visibly relaxed at this and smiled. "Alright, well, I'll see you probably tomorrow then."

Hermione went back to her book as Padma closed the door behind her.

The night passed slowly. Every now and then Hermione could hear the loud thuds of students in the hallway trampling by, laughing loudly and calling out to each other. At one point a group of girls passed by the door singing at the top of their lungs, and Hermione was quite sure she had heard Eleanor's voice.

A knock on the door made her jump and she quickly turned to look at the clock, noting that she had been reading for nearly two hours already. She scowled at the door, wondering who could have come knocking at such a late hour. She was sure Eleanor and Padma both had their keys.

Putting her book down, Hermione stood to her feet and padded across the room, unlocking the door and opening it.

Malfoy looked in at her, leaning his shoulder casually against the wall beside her door. His blonde hair was rumpled, as it seemed to be his style lately, and he had a sheet of parchment and a textbook clasped tightly in one of his hands. He seemed distressed and irritated and he wouldn't meet her eye when she looked up at him.

"Oh," she said, taken aback to see him outside her door.

A group of girls wandered past, one of them slowing and catching sight of Malfoy before prodding her friend in the side. They glanced him over, taking in his dark button down and pale complexion, before giggling behind their hands and hurrying off. Malfoy seemed unaware of their gazes.

"Hi Malfoy," Hermione said, not knowing what else to say. She shifted awkwardly on her bare feet and crossed her arms tightly over her chest, wishing she had thought of putting on a sweater before answering the door. "What um, what are you-" she stopped herself and Malfoy finally caught her eyes, raising a sleek eyebrow at her.

"What am I doing here?"

Hermione tried for a smile, but it was awkward and uncomfortable and she reached a hand up to scratch at her hair. A moment of tense silence passed between them, in which Malfoy scuffed the floor with the tip of his shoe and sniffed with indifference.

"Derek's having another party in my room again," Malfoy said, as though making polite conversation.

Hermione's eyebrows pulled together. "Oh."

"And uh, the library is closed this late on a Saturday," Malfoy pressed on, looking uncomfortable and annoyed. Hermione stared at him, unsure of where he was going with this. Finally, he sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair, gripping the ends and giving them an irritated tug before shrugging. "Can I ahm, study in here?"

Hermione blinked at him a few times, trying to understand what was happening. No. this was becoming too weird. It was one thing for them to consciously meet up in the library to work on homework for a few hours together, and it was another thing for Malfoy to make sure she didn't throw up on herself or get lost after a heavy night of drinking, but this was so… s _trange_. He had wandered all the way from the other side of the school, had come up to her dorm, and was asking to be in there _alone_ with her to study? They didn't do this. Her and Malfoy. They didn't get along like this. At least, they weren't supposed to.

Hermione tried to be angry with him, she really did. She tried to think back to all those times he had called her a name, or hexed her, or all the times they had gotten into a row during classes. She tried to remember all the awful things Harry had said he had done, and all the things he had done during the war. But as Hermione looked at him, watching him as he shifted anxiously on his feet waiting for her to answer, Hermione didn't know why she couldn't be angry.

She thought about how scared he had looked in their sixth year, and how pale and sickly he had been. She thought about how Harry had said that Malfoy had lowered his wand when confronted with Dumbledore, and how he hadn't been able to fulfill Voldemort's task, even when it could mean his own death. She remembered how uncomfortable and disgusted he had looked when his aunt Bellatrix had pinned her down to the floor of his dining room, and made him watch while she tortured her.

Hermione blinked at him and opened the door a little wider, taking a slow step back.

"Um, alright."

Malfoy seemed to hesitate on the threshold, staring at her with a mixture of relief and anger, before he stepped inside and gave a quick glance around the room, as though expecting someone to come out and attack him. Hermione closed the door behind him and tried to remember how to walk normally as she went back to her bed, getting in and pulling the blankets up to her chest.

"I was just reading," she said awkwardly, waving a hand at the abandoned book by her feet. Malfoy nodded, his eyes trying to look anywhere but at her. He remained standing in the middle of the room. Hermione glanced at Padma's desk, which was the barest out of all of theirs, and she pointed to it dismissively. "You can sit, if you'd like to."

Malfoy nodded silently again, pulling out the chair and setting his things down before taking a seat. Hermione couldn't help but notice how quiet the hallway had gotten. The silence seemed to press down upon her ears as she watched Malfoy out of the corner of her eye. She picked up her book and leaned stiffly back against her pillows, trying to appear relaxed as she stared at the page she had left off on. After a few tense moments, Malfoy sniffed indignantly and unfurled his parchment, pulling out his quill from his pocket. A little while later, Hermione heard its familiar scratching.

She relaxed very slowly, and perhaps not completely. She kept having to read certain lines over and over again, because she wasn't taking in anything that she was reading. Every now and then a loud noise echoed from down the hall, someone slamming a door or laughing, but other than that the corridor seemed to have quieted down.

Hermione put her book down after she had read the same page over three times, and tapped her fingers against her arm, trying to find something to do. She spotted Ron's candy on her desk and bit her lip before she pushed the sheets back and walked over to them. Her movement seemed to still Malfoy's quill momentarily, but he quickly resumed working without ever lifting his head.

Hermione picked up the package of toffees and stared at the moving advertisement on the front; a small toffee bite with a smiley face drawn on it, zooming around on a little broomstick under a waterfall of chocolate. She knew she had gotten the treats for Ron, but Christmas wasn't for another month or so.

"Do you, ahm, want some?" Hermione asked, sliding her finger along the cardboard of the box and opening the lid. Malfoy looked over at her for the first time since entering the room. He studied the box in her hand for a moment before giving a shrug. Hermione dumped two dark chocolate covered toffees into her hand and approached him as though he were an animal; slowly and carefully. She handed the toffees out to him and he looked up at her before reaching out and taking them.

His fingertips brushed against her palm and Hermione quickly withdrew her hand as though he had shocked her.

"I got them for Ron for Christmas," she babbled on, as she quickly hurried back to her desk. "But, I may have bought them a bit too soon. I wasn't really thinking. Christmas isn't for a while." She drew a breath and held it, trying to stop herself from continuing. Malfoy munched on one of the toffees thoughtfully before he nodded his head.

"They're good," was all he said, and Hermione smiled a little.

She turned and sat herself down on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest before she asked uncertainly, "Why did Derek punch you in the Mess Hall? I mean, _did_ you say something offensive?" She expected him to snort and roll his eyes at her, and patronize her for assuming such things, but instead he merely sat there, tossing the other toffee into his mouth and taking his time sucking on it to stall his answer. Finally, when the chocolate had melted and he crunched the toffee between his teeth, he sighed.

"No, I didn't," he seemed to hesitate. "It was more, something I did. Or rather, something I _had_ done."

Hermione's eyebrows pulled together and she watched him, waiting for him to explain. He sighed again, running his fingers through his hair.

"Derek is a mud-" he paused, shot her a look out of the corner of his eyes, thought over his words, and continued slowly, "a muggleborn. His parents ahm, well," Malfoy shifted in his seat, agitated with this conversation. "His parents had a run in with my aunt, during the war."

Hermione had a dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew what sort of fate Derek's parents had met.

"Oh," she whispered quietly, feeling the mood darken instantly.

Malfoy gave a shrug, as though he couldn't care less, but something in the way he stared off into the distance made her think otherwise. She followed his eyes and caught them looking at the picture frame on her window sill. Harry and Ron smiled out at her, with herself sitting in between them, all locked in a tight hug.

Suddenly Malfoy was on his feet, looking angrier than ever and uncertain with himself. He grabbed his parchment and stuffed it inside his textbook before picking it up. He started for the door and Hermione's stomach gave a quivering lurch.

"Malfoy wait," she jumped up and immediately wished she hadn't. Malfoy froze halfway to the door, his back stiff. The knuckles of his fist that held his textbook were white and his jaw looked like it had locked up and would never open again. Hermione shifted awkwardly. "Your aunt… she, it's not your fault," she blabbed out, feeling the heat returning to her cheeks. Why hadn't she just let him leave? "You weren't capable of… of stopping her."

She couldn't tell what she was talking about anymore. Whether she was talking about Derek's parents, or Neville's, or even herself. She watched his back, feeling her palms beginning to sweat. He didn't move for a long time, simply staring at the door as though he wished he could apparate through it. Finally, he glanced over his shoulder at her.

Hermione couldn't read the expression on his face, but her stomach churned uncomfortably. He didn't look angry anymore, but he certainly didn't look relieved or happy either. He just sort of stared at her, watching her watch him.

"It's," Hermione paused, stopping herself from saying _it's okay_. Because no, she supposed, it wasn't okay, everything that had happened. And it wasn't okay what he or his family did. But. It also wasn't his _fault_ , not really anyway. Sirius had always told them that the world wasn't split into good people and Death Eaters. That there were circumstances and situations too great for any one person to control. That it was their actions that spoke for who they were, and not anything else. And while Malfoy hadn't gone to Dumbledore and told him what he had been assigned to do, and while he hadn't been a great ray of sunshine to be around, he also hadn't told his aunt that it was Harry kneeling before him in his dining room. And he hadn't killed Harry when he had the chance in the room of requirement. And he hadn't killed Dumbledore, standing up there in the Astronomy Tower. He hadn't done a lot of things.

"It's in the past," Hermione finally whispered, gripping her hands in such tight fists that her nails made half moon imprints on her palms.

Malfoy blinked at her, and he seemed at a loss of what to do or say. He looked around the room, as though something would help him, and Hermione could see how much he desperately wanted to leave.

"I'll see you in the library on Monday," she said, eyeing him closely. He caught eyes with her and noticed his moment to escape. He nodded curtly before he hurried for the door, yanking it open and disappearing out into the dimly lit hallway. Hermione watched him flee and she felt sick to her stomach. She sat herself down on her bed, taking a ragged breath, before she flung herself down and shoved her head deep within her pillows, letting out a strangled sort of frustrated scream.


	6. The One with Astoria Greengrass

**Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

"We missed your _birthday_?"

Hermione jumped and looked up from her textbook as the door slammed open and Eleanor came trotting into the dorm with Padma at her heels. Despite her furious tone, Eleanor looked absolutely delighted as she came skipping over to Hermione's desk, sitting on the edge of it and ignoring Hermione's warnings for her to not sit on her essay.

"How come you didn't tell us your _birthday_ was during the first week of school?" Eleanor said incredulously, looking at Hermione with an obviously fake, hurt expression on her pale features.

Hermione shifted anxiously in her seat. She had forgotten all about her own birthday. With the excitement of coming to university to continue studying magic, though regrettably there has been a severe lack of magic happening lately, and the thought of having to spend her birthday alone, without her parents (who were still Obliviated to believe they had no daughter and living in France) or Harry and Ron, she had pushed the very idea of it to the back of her mind. She thought it would be better to pretend her birthday didn't exist this year. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to assume.

"We could have had a _party_ ," Eleanor whined, looking pouty. Padma and Hermione had grown to know how much Eleanor enjoyed a good party. "Plus, it could have been the perfect way to make friends. I see you're still sitting up in here doing homework by yourself," she added, eyeing the textbook Hermione had been pouring over before they had unceremoniously come crashing in.

Hermione's cheeks flushed and she quickly snatched her textbook up.

"Some of us don't like to celebrate our birthdays," Hermione said haughtily. Eleanor snorted and rolled her eyes, crossing her small arms defiantly over her chest.

"Well, we could still throw a birthday party," Padma said thoughtfully from her bed, where she had taken a seat and was looking through Eleanor's latest edition of _Witch Weekly_. Despite her ravings, Eleanor seemed to have gotten her addicted to the magazine.

Eleanor turned quickly and eyed Padma hungrily. "Like a late party?"

"Well sure, why not?" Padma shrugged, glancing at them over the top of the magazine. "It could be fun."

Hermione tried to hide her groan. "I really don't think-"

"It's settled then!" Eleanor exclaimed, clapping her hands together with a big smile on her face. "Padma and I can plan everything," she said quickly, misinterpreting the frown on Hermione's face. "I know you're busy, you know, reading and stuff. We can plan it all out and just tell you when and where it'll be. Ooh, this will be so exciting!"

Eleanor's genuine excitement for Hermione's birthday party invaded her grumpy thoughts and she couldn't help but become a little excited herself. So yes, Harry and Ron probably wouldn't be able to be there, and her parents would have no idea that their only daughter would be turning 19, but she had Eleanor and Padma who seemed genuine about helping her celebrate her birthday. And so what if they only wanted an excuse to party.

"The whole night will be about you Hermione," Eleanor said cheerfully, leaping from the desk and hurrying to grab up her bag which she had discarded as soon as she entered the room. Hermione watched her dig around for a notebook and a quill. Eleanor climbed onto her bed, sat down cross legged, and began talking loudly about every aspect of the party. Where it would be and who would be there and what the dress code should be.

Hermione couldn't hide the fact that she was a little nervous, but she also couldn't hide the little smile that tugged at her lips as Padma exclaimed that there was an outfit in the newest edition of _Witch Weekly_ that would look stunning on Hermione for her party. She couldn't help but realize that this is what it was like to have girl friends who cherished her company, and that she had really missed out on something good for a long time.

* * *

When Hermione entered the library the next day, she was surprised to find the usual table in the back of the room completely empty. The sight was so shocking that her feet instantly brought her to a standstill and she scanned the rest of the room, looking for any signs of the familiar platinum hair. Nothing.

Hermione scowled a little, gripping the strap of her bag uncertainly. Malfoy had shown up every other day of that week, even after their awkward encounter in Hermione's dorm, and he had seemed perfectly fine. It seemed as though the conversation hadn't bothered him at all, though he definitely never brought it up again, and Hermione was quick to follow his lead. So where was he?

It wasn't like she couldn't do her homework without him, she reasoned with herself. She hadn't grown dependent on him being there or anything. It was just nice to have company sometimes. But obviously, their meet ups in the library weren't a set event, and they were allowed to not be there. It wasn't like they were particularly friends. They were just using each other so they didn't feel lonely at university. That was it.

Hermione started towards the empty table, which felt too barren to approach, and sat herself down in her usual seat. She began unpacking her books, subconsciously placing them in a small circle so that Malfoy could take up the rest of the table which he often did, if he showed up. His textbooks, though Hermione hated to admit it, were much larger than her own, and he had quite a lot more of them. His essays also seemed harder and more complex than hers, and while she hadn't needed to give a presentation yet in any of her classes, it seems Malfoy had already done three.

Though she wouldn't say that his work was more important than hers, as she was sure he would. He just had more to memorize, like the body parts and how they worked and what maladies worked better with which injuries. But Hermione had to memorize legislature branches and laws and the dates of bills passed and the process with which elections worked. She was doing just as complicated work as him. She just had less presentations and textbooks, and shorter essays, that's all.

Hermione was just getting into the rhythm of her unfinished essay that Eleanor had distracted her from last night when Malfoy appeared by the table as though out of thin air. His presence caused Hermione to snap back to reality and she felt a little annoyed with herself that she was relieved that he had shown up.

"Hi," she said, twirling her quill anxiously around her newly manicured fingers. Padma had been asking endlessly to do them for her, and Hermione finally caved and let her last night, when Eleanor wouldn't stop talking about the party and Hermione realized it would be pointless to try and continue her assignment.

Malfoy nodded his head to her, placing his bag on the table and removing his sweater. The static clung to his hair and made it stand on end and Hermione bit back a smile that threatened to overtake her. He looked rushed and tired, as though he were late to get to the library and hurried all the way there. Even though, Hermione reminded herself again, their study sessions were nothing they had agreed upon and therefore were not responsible to attend.

"Long day?" Hermione asked. She didn't know why she was trying so hard to make conversation with him. She quickly ducked her head to go back to her work.

"I have a test tomorrow," Malfoy mumbled, running a hand over his hair to try and flatten it back down, and flopping into the seat across from her. Hermione glanced up as he pulled a large stack of flash cards out of his bag, bound together by a rubber band that looked ready to snap at any minute.

"For?"

"Anatomy," Malfoy grumbled, looking glum and incredibly sulky as he carefully unwrapped the rubber band and flipped through the cards quickly without actually glancing at them. A few moments later his head was on the table and the cards lay abandoned in front of him.

Hermione watched him for a long moment, noting the rise and fall of his back under his white button-down, and the few stray hairs that still stood up on the back of his head from the static. He looked incredibly worn, almost like he had during his sixth year. Hermione tried not to succumb to the suspicious feeling that crept up inside of her at the thought of their sixth year. But no, Malfoy wasn't doing anything sinister, she tried to reason with her less rational self. He was just studying for a big test. It was university. These things happen.

"I can help you… If you want," Hermione said slowly, eyeing him for a reaction. At first he gave no inclination that he had heard her at all, but then he lifted his head from the table an inch to look across at her, dark circles under his pale eyes. He seemed to be thinking hard about something, his gaze unwavering from her and his forehead wrinkled, and Hermione began to fidget under his stare.

Then, without openly saying that he would like her help, Malfoy picked up his flash cards, shuffled them, and held them out across the table. Hermione stared at them, the cardboard pieces of paper between his long, slender fingers, before she put her quill down, her own essay forgotten, and took them from him. She glanced at the first one while Malfoy crossed his arms on the table and laid his chin down, his eyes watching her.

"Stratum means…"

Malfoy looked at her for a moment before taking a breath. "Layer."

Hermione flipped the card over, checked it and placed it aside. She thought to herself that she would make two piles. One pile for the ones he got right and the other of the ones he missed. She looked at the next card.

"What is the deepest epidermal layer and is the site of mitosis?"

"Basale layer."

Into the pile.

"What is found only in the thick skin and is comprised of dead keratinocytes?"

"Lucidum."

Into the pile.

"Name the three pigment skin colors."

"Melanin, Carotene…" Malfoy paused, lifting his chin from his arms and scratching at his cheek, staring off over her shoulder at the other side of the library before he finally said, "Hemoglobin."

Into the pile.

As Hermione read over the next card, Malfoy spoke.

"Eleanor said you're hosting a party this weekend."

Hermione's cheeks blazed as she stared intently at the card in front of her, readjusting her grip on the large stack. "It's silly really," she said quietly. When Malfoy did not respond, Hermione read from the next card. "Hair thinning and some degree of baldness is called what?"

"Alopecia."

Into the pile.

"Name the three types of skin barriers."

"Chemical, physical, and biological."

Into the pile. A few cards slipped from Hermione's grip and she tapped the stack against the table top to reposition them. Malfoy spoke again before she could read the next card.

"What's the occasion?"

"What?" Hermione looked up from the cards and caught eyes with him. He had placed his chin back on his crossed arms and was looking up at her through the static fringe of his hair.

"What's the purpose of the party?"

Hermione shifted in her seat, trying hard not to be embarrassed. It was completely normal for people to throw birthday parties, especially at their age. Why was she so embarrassed about it?

"Oh, um, it's my birthday," she said. "I mean, my late birthday. My birthday was a few days after we all arrived here, but since nobody knew me and nobody knew it was my birthday I didn't celebrate it, but then Eleanor found out about it somehow and she insisted that we put together this big party. I don't even know anything about it really, Eleanor is in charge of everything and," Hermione paused when she realized she had started rambling and she looked down at the cards in her hands, eyeing her new manicured thumbs. "It's silly really," she said again, shuffling through the cards.

Again, Malfoy said nothing, merely watching her. She wondered if he was really paying attention or if he was distracting her from asking him card questions so that he could doze for a bit, as he looked incredibly tired. After a while, he gave a little shrug.

She didn't know what came over her when she opened her mouth and asked, "Would you… like to come?"

Malfoy's eyebrows rose and disappeared into his hair line and Hermione felt her cheeks warm up. She quickly shook her head, as though to make the words disappear into the air around her.

"I mean, it's stupid. A birthday party. But I don't really know anyone who is going besides Eleanor and Padma, so... yeah," she finished lamely.

Malfoy was silent for a long time, watching her from across the table as though she were still talking even though an awkward silence had fallen between them. Finally, he gave another little shrug.

"Yeah maybe," he said in an undertone, sitting up and reaching a hand up to rub at his face. When he yawned, Hermione spotted the neat and white rows of his teeth.

"Okay," she said awkwardly, not knowing what else to do. Malfoy leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on his thighs and looking at her and Hermione looked back at him. They stayed like that for a moment before Malfoy raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Granger?"

"Hm?"

"The cards."

"Oh!" Hermione quickly shuffled the cards and pulled out a new one at random, clearing her throat and trying to appear somewhat functional. "What is the waterproofing epidermis that blocks the diffusion of water?"

"Glycolipids."

Into the pile.

* * *

It was after dinner that Hermione spotted the school's owl sitting on the ledge outside her window waiting for her. Feeling incredibly excited to hear back from Harry and Ron, Hermione opened the window and allowed the owl to hop inside. It hooted professionally up at her and extending its leg to allow her access. Hermione untied the letter from its leg and set her bag down before sitting at her desk and ripping it open.

A stone dropped into her stomach when she only recognized Harry's tiny, messy handwriting. She turned it over briefly to check the back and then picked up the discarded envelope, wondering if Ron had written his own, separate letter. But the envelope was empty.

Hermione scowled down at Harry's letter, feeling a wave of disappointment and sadness crash over her that made her feel incredibly lonely.

Sure, she was very excited to hear from Harry. But after everything they had been through, this was not how she was expecting Ron to act when she left for university. As though she didn't even exist. Hermione took a shaky breath and tried to focus on being happy about hearing from Harry.

 _Hermione-_

 _I'm glad to hear that your classes are doing well. I don't know how you stand still being in school. I have a lot of respect for you. The giants have finally agreed to meet with the Minster to discuss a treaty, but they're not happy about it. Ron's arm healed. Ginny's been going nuts trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Mrs. Weasley says that there's no rush. She's only just finished Hogwarts, and Mrs. Weasley suggested that she go to a university like you, but Ginny didn't seem like she wanted to go for it. She wants to do something involving Quidditch, but she hasn't told her mum yet._

 _Hope Malfoy isn't causing you any trouble. Just let me know if he is. I have influences in the Ministry that can put to a stop to it._

 _Can't wait to see you for Christmas. All the best._

 _-Harry_

Hermione read and reread the letter over and over again. Her eyes kept coming to rest on Ron's name. Three words. _Ron's arm healed_. That's great and all, but then why hasn't he written anything if his arm is healed and fine? Did he not have anything to tell her? Did he not want to talk to her?

Hermione folded the letter up carefully and stuck it back in the envelope before she glanced at the owl, who still sat waiting for her to write a reply.

"You can go," she whispered and the owl hooted before turning and taking off out the window.

Hot tears began to prick at Hermione's eyes and she clenched her teeth tight together to ward them off. No, she wouldn't get upset about this. Ron was probably just busy. With his arm now healed, he probably had a lot of work to catch up on. Work that he probably procrastinated on even before his injury. He just didn't have the time to write her a letter.

Reaching a hand up, Hermione wiped at her eyes and placed the envelope on her desk. She glanced at the box of toffees sitting innocently beside it and instantly felt anger flare up inside her chest. Why had she bought him a present when he couldn't even take the time out of his day to write to her? How pathetic.

She grabbed the box of toffees up and stood to her feet, quickly putting on her coat and heading out the door. She wandered down the law wing corridor, avoiding a few passing groups of students who were getting done with a late dinner and were coming back to their dorms. Apart from a few groups, most of the halls seemed empty, as they normally were unless it was the weekend.

When Hermione got to the first floor, she pushed open the door and entered the entrance hall and suddenly stopped short.

Malfoy stood by the front door, talking to Eleanor's blonde friend, the one that Padma hung out with and the one who found it interesting that she was friends with Harry Potter. The girl laughed at something Malfoy said, in which Malfoy gave a tired smirk, and the girl's hand touched his arm in a gentle way. It looked innocent enough, but for some reason Hermione felt a tug in the pit of her stomach.

But it couldn't be jealousy. It was _Malfoy_ after all. Outside the library, he was allowed to talk to and flirt with whoever he liked. It didn't matter to Hermione at all. No, what mattered was that the dumpsters where she intended to throw out Ron's toffees were past the doors that they stood in front of, and there was no way for Hermione to get through them without the pair noticing her. Which, for some reason, was something she really didn't want.

Hermione was just about to turn around and leave when Malfoy's gray eyes snapped over the girl's shoulder to look at her. Hermione might have imagined it, but she thought she saw Malfoy take the tiniest step away from her. Far enough away that the girl's hand fell back to her side.

Hermione felt her cheeks warm up and she wished she could crawl back upstairs when the girl turned to look over her shoulder at her.

"Oh, hey, you're Hermione Granger right?" The girl asked for the second time, crossing her arms over her chest and looking at her. Hermione shifted on her feet, gripping the box of toffees with sweaty hands.

"Um, yes, hello. We've met before," her voice trailed off. Malfoy's gaze never turned away from her.

"Oh right, before you and Eleanor went off to that party," the girl said, before she quickly turned to Malfoy, giving him a smile. " _This_ is Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's friend. We went to school with her, remember?"

 _We_.

Malfoy nodded his head slowly. "Granger and I know each other," he said. But he said it in a funny sort of way. A way that made Hermione's eyebrows pull together. Yes, they knew each other, but they didn't _know_ each other, did they?

"I'm sorry," Hermione said, trying to force Malfoy's tone out of her head and instead peering curiously at the girl. "You went to Hogwarts?"

The girl looked at her and nodded. "Astoria Greengrass, Slytherin," she said, holding out a hand towards her. "I was two years below you, but I finished Hogwarts early," she explained further. Hermione awkwardly shook her hand, though for the life of her she couldn't place her.

"Well, that's nice," Hermione said, unable to think of anything else to say. Astoria didn't seem to mind as she turned her attention back to Malfoy with another smile.

"Shall we continue talking upstairs?"

Hermione shifted to hold the box of toffees in front of her stomach, as though they would be able to see it lurching around if she kept it out in the open. Malfoy nodded absentmindedly, waving a hand towards the door to the stairwell of the medical wing. Astoria said goodbye to Hermione and started towards them. Malfoy caught Hermione's eye and she tried to give him a smile, though it came out awkward and tight-lipped and her eyes slid away from his face against her will.

"Later Granger," he said, following after Astoria.

Hermione waited until the door was closed before she let out a loud sound of frustration and stomped out the front door, down the steps into the cold and over to the dumpster. She lifted the top and chucked the toffees inside before slamming it shut and marching her way back up to her dorm, feeling disgruntled and confused.


	7. The One with Hermione's Birthday Party

**Author's Note:**

 **This chapter was actually quite fun to write, haha. I hope you all like it!**

 **xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

You'd think Hermione was getting married with the way Eleanor and Padma dotted on her, rushing around their room the minute classes let out, grabbing make up bags and curling irons. Hermione watched with amusement, unable to keep the excited grin from her face. She almost forgot all about being angry at Ron and Malfoy's mysterious encounters with Astoria Greengrass. Tonight, as Eleanor had said, would be all about her.

Padma worked diligently on Hermione's make up while Eleanor bossed around two girls Hermione didn't know, who had apparently helped work on setting up the party.

"Where is the party El?" Hermione asked, trying to catch her eye in the mirror's reflection while Padma squinted her eyes at her in concentration.

"Don't talk Hermione, I'm doing your lipstick!" Padma said, rubbing a rough thumb under her mouth to get a smudge off. Hermione winced at the pressure and apologized, giggling a little at how serious Padma was taking her job position.

"I rented out the Mess Hall for you," Eleanor exclaimed proudly before she turned on the two girls. "Now make sure the cake has arrived, and if anyone tries to come in that isn't on the list, you tell them to get out, understand?" The two girls nodded and quickly took off out of the room. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous it all was.

"Don't you think this is a little much El?"

"Hermione!"

"Sorry!"

Padma grabbed a wet washcloth and wiped Hermione's mouth clean before starting over.

"It's definitely not too much," Eleanor said, holding up an outfit in front of the full length mirror to examine it. "My birthdays are always like this. Birthdays are a big deal, Hermione. It's another year that you've made it in this world. Another year for people to appreciate you and love you. Another year to show them who's boss."

Hermione and Padma exchanged glances before breaking down into fits of giggles. Eleanor rolled her eyes on the other side of the room, tossing aside a shirt and interchanging it with another one.

"Laugh all you want, you'll thank me when the night is over."

Padma took twenty minutes to carefully apply all of Hermione's make up, and it took Eleanor only ten minutes to straighten her short hair and make it presentable. When her head was all done and make up, Padma hurried over to her bed and pulled out a long, pink box from underneath it. The sparkling letters _Witch Weekly Exclusive Catalogue_ glittered up in silver at them and Hermione's jaw dropped.

"Padma, you actually bought me something from _Witch Weekly_?"

Padma beamed. "Of course!"

"I approved it, of course," Eleanor said, coming to stand beside Padma and smirking. "Well go ahead, open it!"

Hermione bit her lip nervously but quickly stopped at the stern look Padma was giving her. It had taken her three times to get Hermione's lipstick perfect, and she really didn't want Padma to bring fury down upon her for messing it up. She slowly stood up and Padma removed the top of the box for her to see what was inside.

Hermione was worried that they would have gone overboard, but the dress that sat inside the box was simple and classy and, to Hermione's surprise, she really liked it. She touched the material before taking it out of the box and holding it up to it. It was a strapless, dark red dress with a sheer black cover and a simple jewel resting on the bosom. It was light and calm and something that Hermione could really see herself wearing.

Eleanor and Padma were looking at her expectantly and she hadn't realized that her mouth was hanging open and she was holding back a smile until she looked up at them.

"This is amazing girls, really," she said breathlessly. She was so used to being friends with Harry and Ron, and getting more boyish or bookworm-y gifts for her birthdays, which she had never complained about before. But it was nice to mix it up a bit she guessed.

"We knew you'd like it," Padma said, storing the box back under the bed.

"Alright, change into that with some tights and these," Eleanor held out a pair of her simple black heels, "and we can head down to the party."

Padma and Eleanor began to change while Hermione got butterflies in her stomach. When Padma's back was turned, she bit her lip nervously. Who did Eleanor invite to the party that it was this big of a deal? Hermione only knew maybe three or four people at the university, so everybody else would be strangers. Could Hermione really do this?

Before she had time to question it, she was out of her clothes and into her tights and dress, putting on her heels just as Eleanor and Padma finished getting dressed. When Hermione straightened up, Eleanor was holding out a shot glass towards with, with clear, innocent looking liquid inside. Hermione eyed the glass, because the look on Eleanor's face was not innocent.

"Happy 19th birthday Hermione!" Padma and Eleanor said, as Hermione took the glass from Eleanor's outstretched hand. They each drank back their shots and Hermione followed their lead hesitantly.

The liquid burned her eyes and she coughed a little, which received a laugh from the girls before they took the glass from her and started for the door of their dorm. The halls were filled, as they usually were on a Friday night, and Eleanor led Hermione and Padma through the crowd to the stairwell. Loud music thumped from somewhere unknown and it wasn't until Hermione arrived outside the Mess Hall that she realized it was coming from inside.

"What about the professors? The headmistress?" Hermione asked, suddenly nervous. Eleanor gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry Hermione, I totally asked for permission for this. We'll be _fine_ , now come on," Eleanor took Hermione by the arm and led her into the Mess Hall.

She almost wouldn't have been able to recognize it if the multi-colored lights weren't bouncing off the familiar bright blue and white tiles on the floors and walls. The tables had vanished, replaced instead by a wooden dance floor, and a long table off to the side held a full supply of Butterbeer, Firewhiskey, rum, vodka and other drinks that Hermione didn't recognize though she was sure they were guaranteed to make a night forgettable.

Already the Mess Hall was filled with a dance floor full of people, and Hermione couldn't help but instantly scanning the crowd for a familiar face. Just then a group of girls came scurrying over to Eleanor, talking in hurried tones about some gossip or another that was no doubt traveling around the school. Eleanor excused herself, gave Hermione a bone crushing hug for such a small person, and flounced away with her friends. Padma appeared by Hermione's side and gave her a smile.

"What do you think?"

Hermione looked around all the work they must have done to make this night happen and she smiled at Padma. "It looks fantastic."

"Come on, let's dance!" Padma said, taking her by the arm and pulling her towards the dance floor.

Hermione didn't how long she danced for, or how many songs she had danced to, or how many people she was introduced to that she would never remember all their names, but by the time she got off the dance floor to go to the drinks table, she was more than a little tired. Padma excused herself to go to the bathroom and Hermione grabbed a bottle of Firewhiskey.

She held it in her hands, wondering if she really wanted to get drunk again, but she threw caution to the wind. It was her birthday after all, and Eleanor said tonight was supposed to be all about her.

She opened the bottle and took a sip before turning around to survey the room to see where Eleanor had gone off to. Her eyes instantly stopped on the door, where a slicked-back, blonde haired man stood, eyeing the room hesitantly. Malfoy. Hermione blinked, unsure whether she really thought he was going to come or not.

Malfoy seemed to spot her just a moment after she had spotted him, for he started through the crowd right towards her. Hermione shifted on the spot. It still felt strange to see Malfoy and see him coming towards her and not feel fear that he was going to say something offensive or cruel. But when he stopped in front of her, he did not say anything of the sort. Instead, he merely nodded to her, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his slacks.

He wore all black, from his button-down to his dress shoes, and his hair was slicked back like it had been during their first few years at Hogwarts. Hermione stared at him, unable to comprehend that he may have actually put effort into coming to her birthday party.

"Well this is," Malfoy looked around at the sweaty bodies of the dancing young adults on the dance floor, apparently at a loss for words, before he finally said, "Not like you."

Hermione's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "Not like me? And what makes you think you know me?"

Despite her offended tone, Malfoy smirked a little. "We might have hated each other Granger, but I still knew you for half of my life. I'm sure I have a pretty good idea about who you are."

Hermione took another defiant swig from her Firewhiskey and Malfoy, noticing the alcohol table for the first time, reached for a bottle of something that Hermione didn't recognize. She was too embarrassed, however, to ask what it could be.

"Then what would _I_ be doing at my birthday party, hm?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Malfoy swirled the contents of his bottle as he gazed around the room, as though deep in thought, before he gave a little shrug, "I don't know, creating a work force to knit hats for enslaved house elves. Using the money from a party to fund some half-beast's rights movement. Oh," Malfoy took a swig of his drink, grimaced and looked at her, "how about this. Sitting in your room reading a book and pretending that your birthday isn't something that happens every year."

Hermione stared at him, her fingers numb on the neck of her bottle of Firewhiskey. Malfoy raised a triumphant eyebrow at her.

"Am I getting closer?"

Hermione took a long sip from her drink, trying not to look at him. She wouldn't say that it unnerved her how well Malfoy knew her. What unnerved her was that she didn't know him at all. She had no idea what he would be doing on his birthday. Was she really that predictable? Was she really that easy to read? Or was Malfoy just that good at hiding himself away?

Silence fell between them, even though the room was loud with chatter and laughter and the thumping of the music through the magical speakers high on the ceiling. They drank their drinks together without talking until Hermione's bottle was empty and she was reaching for a new one.

Her cheeks already flushing a little, she had already established that she was a bit of a light weight, she looked over at Malfoy and bit her painted lip.

"Where's your, um friend?"

Malfoy looked at her, his bottle pausing just before touching his lips, and he seemed to think for a moment before realization dawned on him. "Oh, Greengrass." He finished taking a swig and put the empty bottle on the table, also reaching for a second one. "Dunno."

"Oh," Hermione said, downing a large gulp. It got easier to drink the more she drank it. "So you guys aren't that close then?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at her, again swirling the contents of his drink around in his bottle before he let out a little noise that Hermione couldn't quite distinguished over the music. "I guess not, no."

Hermione knew she should stop talking, but something inside her wouldn't let her. Besides it was still the anger from Ron not sending her a letter, or perhaps it was that unexplained feeling she had felt earlier when she had seen Astoria laughing at something Malfoy had said and touching his arm. Whatever it was, it was propelling words out of Hermione's mouth faster than she could hold them down.

"I don't really trust her, personally."

This time Hermione did hear the noise Malfoy made, it was a short cut laugh of both amusement and astonishment. "Oh yeah Granger?" he asked, his pale eyes gazing around the room, watching the other occupants.

Before Hermione knew it, her second bottle was empty, and she was moving onto the next.

"I mean, she asked me if I was friends with Harry and then she said that that was _interesting_ ," Hermione made a little face, her cheeks flushing, though whether from embarrassment or from the heat in the room or from the alcohol, she couldn't particularly tell.

"I suppose that is interesting," Malfoy said, taking his time with his own drink. In fact, as soon as Hermione opened her third one, he seemed to stop taking sips from his own.

"It is _not_ interesting," Hermione spat. She felt a little bit freer than she had when she had first entered the party, and she wondered briefly where Padma and Eleanor were.

"Oh yeah Granger?" Malfoy asked again with a tone of amusement, a small smirk coming to his lips and a slight excited sparkle starting in his eyes. Obviously, Hermione's buzzed state was highly amusing to him.

"I'm my own person," Hermione said, and as soon as she did, it was like she couldn't stop it. Her anger for Ron overran her own common sense. Perhaps the alcohol did a bit too. "I don't need Harry and _Ronald_ to define who I am. I'm me. Hermione Granger. I have short hair now, because I'm not the same girl as I was in Hogwarts."

Suddenly Malfoy was putting his drink down and standing in front of her, blocking her view of the dancers on the dance floor. Hermione looked up at him, trying to understand his sudden change of behavior.

"Granger, how much were you planning on drinking tonight?" Malfoy asked, his hands clasped behind his back.

Hermione stared at him for a minute before she lifted the newly opened top of her fourth bottle to her lips and held it there, whispering into the bottle, "I dunno."

"What?" Malfoy said, bending down a little to hear her over the music. His cologne swept over her and she momentarily felt light headed by it. She hadn't realized that Malfoy wore such nice smelling cologne. It smelled like forest grass and peppermint and maybe a hint of cinnamon. It was sweet and musky and Hermione had to remind herself who it was that was standing in front of her.

"I dunno, I wasn't really going to think about it," she said a little louder, looking away from him to try and clear her head. But it seemed as though those drinks were slowly starting to seep into her brain. The room had a fuzzy, happy appearance about it that she was sure had nothing to do with the twinkling lights Eleanor had put up on the ceiling.

"Alright," Malfoy reached forward, taking the bottle from Hermione's fingers and placing it on the table behind her. He was so close to her as he reached over her that Hermione leaned back to avoid bumping into him. He straightened up and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Why don't you take it easy Granger?"

Hermione glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly, though she thought he probably had a point. This was only her second time really drinking any type of alcohol. She was surprised that she had been able to chug three in the short time that she was talking to Malfoy. Or was it short? Time seemed to have leapt away from her since she had entered the party.

"Do you know where Eleanor and Padma are?" Hermione asked him.

Malfoy's eyes turned away from her and he gazed around the room, stopping every now and then to squint at someone before moving on. He turned back to her and shrugged his shoulders.

"I really need one of them," Hermione insisted and Malfoy sighed heavily, moving his fingers carefully over his slicked back hair to keep from messing it up.

"Alright Granger, I'll find them," he was just about to walk away when Hermione's hand reached out and snatched him arm. Her fingers wrapped around the fabric of his button-down made him instantly still and he whipped around to look first her face, then her hand touching him, then back up to her face. He seemed uncertain all of a sudden, like he'd rather be anywhere but there. "What Granger?"

"Are you and Astoria going to start dating?" Hermione didn't know why she asked this question. It just came rushing out of her before she knew what was happening. Malfoy blinked at her, just as surprised by her question as she was.

"Um," he reached over and unfurled her fingers from his arm. "I don't know Granger. Probably not. Let me get Eleanor or Padma." He was gone before she had the chance to open her mouth again and Hermione felt her cheeks go hot with embarrassment.

What was wrong with her? Of course they weren't close enough to discuss something like that. They weren't close at all. The only time they really talked to each was when they were studying, and that was only to ask the other question, usually to move their book or paper out of the way. Now here she was, making a right ass of herself in front of him. She covered her face with her hands for a moment before she took a breath and turned back to the alcohol table.

She picked up her Firewhiskey and took a big sip just as someone came up next to her.

"Hey, happy birthday Hermione!" Derek said, wearing an old muggle football sweater and jeans, and smiling a little crooked, as though the room was incredibly fuzzy for him as well. Hermione nearly choked on her drink when she saw him and she coughed a little with tears in her eyes, hoping she was being discreet about her distaste of him coming up to her. Fortunately, he seemed far too drunk to notice.

"Oh, hi Derek. Yeah, thanks," she said, trying to offer him a smile. He was standing incredibly close to her, and his breath smelled of beer and gin.

"So, how-"

"Is Eleanor?" Hermione cut in, unable to help herself. "She's fine. Still hasn't said anything about you. Don't know if she ever will. Sorry."

Derek seemed to blink a couple of times at her as what she said sank in before he let out a loud laugh, shaking his head.

"Oh no, I'm over Eleanor, don't worry," he gave her what she thought was supposed to be a dazzling smile. "I was just asking how you were."

Hermione shifted on her feet a little, really thinking this question over as she took another sip from her drink. How was she doing?

"Well, not really great," she admitted truthfully, though she wasn't sure why. "The guy I like is ignoring me, the guy I'm supposed to hate is now my closest friend here, except I'm starting to feel weird about being around him so much and now I've just completely embarrassed myself in front of him, and now here you are. Talking to me. Completely wasted."

Derek gave a little laugh, obviously not having paid much attention to anything she said that didn't include him. "I'm not wasted, Hermione. But you," he poked her bare shoulder. "You're a little drunk, aren't you?"

Hermione tried to think about this. She supposed that she was spewing out random bits of information that she wouldn't normally say if she were sober, and the room did have a hazy feel to it, but other than that she didn't feel quite drunk yet. Not like she had the other Friday night at Derek's party.

"Um, I think I'm-"

It happened quicker than her sluggish, buzzed brain could react to. Derek had leaned in and his lips crashed down hard onto her, knocking into her teeth. His hand came up and grabbed her by the arm, holding her close to him, and Hermione tried unsuccessfully to pull away. By the time she finally yanked herself away, she felt completely sobered up and slightly repulsed. She took multiple steps back only to run into the alcohol table. She put her drink down and shook her head, feeling sick.

"Granger."

Hermione whipped around and caught sight of Malfoy standing there between both Padma and Eleanor. The girls looked shocked, glancing between Hermione and Derek. Malfoy's face was impossible to read, and Hermione felt herself twist even more painfully.

"I found them." Malfoy said, not bothering to elaborate. His jaw was clenched, that much Hermione could make out, before suddenly he was turning and disappearing through the crowd.

"Hermione what-" Padma started, but Hermione didn't hear her.

"Malfoy, wait," she brushed between Eleanor and Padma, her stomach feeling queasy and she didn't know why. She assumed that she didn't want Malfoy to think that she was going around kissing the guy who punched him in the face. Not after they had made so much progress. "Malfoy," she said, stopping and standing on her tip toes to try and see his bobbing head of platinum hair. She spotted it by the door and she quickly pushed her way through the crowd of people.

She thought she heard someone calling her from behind, but her vision seemed to be tunneling and all she could focus on was what was right in front of him.

"Malfoy, wait," she said, feeling relief when he paused just outside the door in the hallway, turning to look back at her. His face was still that expressionless mask, his hands deep into his pockets. He stared at her for a moment while she took a couple of breaths, trying to get the tunnel vision to go away, but it only seemed to be getting worse.

"What Granger?" Malfoy said, and Hermione knew in the back of her brain that there was anger in her tone. She began to panic a little. She couldn't lose Malfoy, not now. She didn't know a lot of people at university, and their study sessions in the library were all that were keeping her going right now. Her tunnel vision was getting worse and she thought she heard someone call her name from behind her. Malfoy glanced over her shoulder to look at something, but Hermione couldn't see what it was.

"You should know that Derek and I… that we…"

Hermione Granger had never thrown up from drinking too much alcohol before. But it was definitely the worst experience of her life.

When the tunnel vision finally left her, and she could see the world around her sharper than ever, the first thing she realized was that Malfoy was gone, and that it was Eleanor and Padma who were by her side, pulling her to her feet.

"You're lucky you have short hair girl, since nobody was here to hold it back for you," Eleanor said light-heartedly, walking her over to a chair in the hallway and sitting her down. Padma quickly pulled out her wand and _Scrougify_ ed the vomit away.

Hermione blinked around the brightly lit hallway, trying to remember how things had turned south so quickly. Where was Malfoy?

"Hermione, how much did you have to drink tonight?" Eleanor asked, kneeling in front of her and holding her hands.

Hermione shook her head a little to focus. "I'm not sure," she said honestly, trying to think back to when Malfoy had started taking her drink from her. She had already been feeling a bit dizzy then.

Padma was saying something to Eleanor that Hermione didn't hear and Eleanor gave a little laugh, patting Hermione's cheek to bring her back to reality.

"Hermione, hey," she smiled up at her and Hermione smiled a little back. "Are you okay? Do you want to go back upstairs?"

Hermione thought about this before she nodded her head and as soon as she did Padma and Eleanor were helping her stand and guiding her up the stairs. The whole way Hermione felt like a zombie while Padma and Eleanor talked loudly over her to each other, laughing as though there was nothing wrong with what Hermione had just done. And maybe that's what helped get Hermione all the way to the fifth floor.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked as they entered the dark dormitory room. Eleanor flicked on a lamp on the desk and led her towards her bed.

"About two in the morning," she said, sitting her down and starting to take off her shoes.

"Where did Malfoy go?" Hermione glanced first at Padma, but Padma seemed reluctant to answer, so she turned her gaze down to Eleanor. Eleanor busied herself with taking off Hermione's shoes before she looked up at her and gave a little smile.

"Well, you hung out with him most of the night actually. We wanted to come over and talk to you but you looked like you were in quite the conversation, and like you were having fun, so we decided to leave you alone," Eleanor reached around and unzipped Hermione's dress before pulling it up and over her head. Hermione was too busy listening to what Eleanor was saying to worry that she was sitting there in just her underwear and tights. "And then I guess you started to get a little drunk because Malfoy came looking for us to tell us that you needed us and by the time we got there," Eleanor paused again to take off Hermione's tights and Padma came over with a pair of shorts and a tank top.

Eleanor helped Hermione into her clothes and when her head came through her shirt she looked up at Eleanor again. "By the time you got there what?"

"Well, you were kissing Derek," Eleanor finished softly.

Hermione shook her head suddenly. "Yes, that's what I needed to clear up with Malfoy. Derek kissed _me_."

"We believe you Hermione," Padma said with a little smile while Eleanor pulled back her sheets and helped her get into bed.

"But then you went after Malfoy to tell him that," Eleanor continued, "and by the time we followed you, you were getting sick on his shoes."

Hermione stared at them for a long moment before her cheeks began to burn so hot that she was sure her head was going to explode. She thought she felt tears prick at her eyes though she wasn't sure.

"I got sick on Malfoy's shoes?"

Eleanor gave a little laugh and pat her hair down. "Don't worry about it Hermione. This happens a lot at uni. He'll get over it, it'll be okay. Padma threw up in some guy's lap at Derek's party."

Padma blushed a little but smiled all the same and Hermione felt a little bit better. But still. This was Malfoy she threw up on. Not some stranger.

"Why don't you just get some rest," Eleanor said, picking up the discarded dress and tights and putting them away while Padma went to the door. "We're going to go back to the party for a bit but we'll be up soon. Try and sleep."

They were gone before Hermione really realized that they had left. She rolled onto her side and tried not to focus on the room spinning around her. It seemed far worse now that she was alone in a dark room and she gripped her pillow tight in her hands. She thought about Malfoy, and what an ass he had made of herself, and tried to think about why she had acted the way she had, but her brain wasn't working properly.

All she felt was embarrassment.

With a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes and tried desperately to fall asleep, which was much easier than she thought it would be, and within a few minutes she had passed out.


	8. The One with Ron's Letter

**Author's Note:**

 **I hope the pacing is okay in this story. I always get so nervous thinking about that, haha!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

Despite her pounding headache the next morning, Hermione forced herself to get out of bed. Padma and Eleanor were still asleep when she pulled on her jacket and a pair of pajama pants over her shorts, grabbed her keys, and tip-toed quietly out into the hallway. She closed the door behind her and tried hard not to think about how embarrassed she was about what happened last night. She had already decided that she was going to go to Malfoy and apologize for what she had done.

The sun was far too bright for 9am on a Saturday morning and Hermione squinted against her headache as she trekked down into the village. She stopped at a pharmacy to grab some muggle Aspirin and a pair of dark sunglasses before heading towards a bakery that she had stopped into with Padma and Eleanor last week.

As soon as she opened the door, the smell of the freshly baked bread was heaven to her stomach, which quivered hungrily. She kept her sunglasses on as she approached the counter, smiling at the portly man behind it, who greeted her with a cheery good morning.

"Two chocolate muffins please," Hermione said, pulling out some money. As the baker bagged up her muffins, Hermione could hear faint whispering coming from somewhere behind her. She glanced over her shoulder curiously and caught sight of two girls sitting at a table, wearing clothes far too expensive for Hermione's taste, and muttering behind gloved hands, eyeing her carefully. They didn't seem to notice that Hermione had caught sight of them, thanks to her sunglasses, and the girls laughed together at something that Hermione was sure was insulting.

Hermione felt her cheeks heat up and when the baker handed her the bag, she quickly took it and left the bakery in a hurry. She didn't have time to dwell on whatever nonsense those girls thought they knew about her, or that they might have been degrading her because of her pajamas. She had to focus on today. And perhaps focus on not passing out from her hangover.

By the time she had gotten back to the university, her stomach was twisting and turning inside of her, and she wondered if it was all from hunger or a little from nerves as she climbed the stairs of the medical wing.

As she drew closer to Malfoy's door, she began to doubt her decision of coming to apologize to him. Perhaps he didn't even want to see her. Maybe she had embarrassed him, or disgusted him so much that he just wanted to go back to the way things used to be. This thought terrified Hermione a little, though she couldn't exactly pinpoint why. She assumed that she had just grown too used to his company that to be alone now would ruin her, or perhaps she had been so happy to be over the constant arguing and yelling and to think of that returning caused her distress.

Whatever it was, it was too late to turn back as Hermione stopped in front of his door. She raised her hand, stopped herself, pulled her sunglasses off and placed them on the top of her head (blinking hard against the harsh light in the hall), and knocked on the door. She held the bag of muffins tightly in her fingers, trying hard to keep her breathing regular.

Noises came from the other side of the door and finally, after a moment or two of wondering if she should knock again, the door opened. Hermione prepared a smile on her face, but it quickly dropped when her eyes landed on the person who had answered the door.

Astoria Greengrass stood in front of her. Her long delicate blond hair hanging low in messy curls and her eyes looking sleepy. She wore a pair of boxers and a silky, dark green button-down shirt. Her head cocked to the side when she saw Hermione standing there, taking in her pajamas pants and old coat, and a devious smile seemed to come onto her permanently painted red lips.

"Look Draco, it's your girlfriend," Astoria said, a bit of a snide tone coming into her sickly sweet voice. Hermione gripped the bag tightly, feeling her heart sinking lower and lower into her feet. What did she think she was doing, showing up at Malfoy's door, like she just assumed he would be alone waiting for her.

Hermione felt a blush creep up into her cheeks as Malfoy appeared in the background somewhere over Astoria's shoulder, peering through the door to see who it could be. When his eyes landed on her, he looked a little surprised, though he seemed to hide it well.

"Oh," Astoria said, eyeing the bakery bag in Hermione's hands. "Girlfriend or servant?" Astoria let out an airy laugh, which could have been perceived as friendly, but could also have been seen as sinister. Hermione decided to go with the sinister route, but she was too embarrassed and weak with hunger to actually protest.

When neither Hermione or Malfoy seemed to be willing to make the first move, Astoria rolled her eyes and walked over to the couch, grabbing up her skirt and hanging it over her shoulder.

"See you later Draco," she called over her shoulder as she confidently moved past Hermione out into the hallway and started down the corridor, humming a little tune to herself. Hermione watched her go, still feeling the sting of her words and her sudden presence hitting her.

"What do you want?"

Hermione turned to look at Malfoy and saw that he had taken Astoria's place by the door, and was watching her with his hooded pale eyes. He didn't wear a shirt and he had replaced his slacks with a pair of baggy, grey sweatpants that hung off his hips. His platinum hair was mussed up from sleeping and he held back a yawn rather unsuccessfully.

Hermione stayed completely still for a moment, debating on whether or not she should abort her mission, before she awkwardly waved the bakery bag between them.

"I brought breakfast," she whispered hopefully, trying her best not to look so desperate and stupid, though she was sure that was impossible. She had never felt like such a fool, especially not in front of Malfoy of all people.

"For Derek?" Malfoy asked, and though his expression never changed, a tone of malice seeped through that stung Hermione to the core.

"No… for you," she said awkwardly, shifting on her feet. Malfoy stared her down for a moment before he stepped back and opened the door a bit further for her. He didn't say anything, but Hermione took that to mean she was allowed to come in and she quickly walked inside, glancing around the room.

The other mysterious occupant that was Malfoy's roommate was missing from his bed, and Derek lay fast asleep under his sheets, his snores muffled by his pillow. The room looked far messier than Hermione had remembered it. Old bottles and cans lay scattered around, along with wrappers of candies and food, and shirts and other discarded clothes. Including, Hermione noticed with a blush, a thong hanging off the back of the coach. Astoria's, she thought, noting the lace and the dark green fabric.

Malfoy scratched at his hair and waved a hand towards his desk chair. His part of the room seemed to be the only bit that was clean, and Hermione walked over to it, sitting down at his desk and holding the bag tightly in her fingers. Malfoy ran a hand over his tired face and fell down onto his bed, pushing his head into his pillow and looking at her with only one eye.

"Whatisit?" he muttered from somewhere deep within his pillow and Hermione shifted on her seat, placing the bag of muffins on his desk and glancing over her shoulder at Derek's sleeping form. When she was quite convinced that he would not be woken up by them talking, Hermione turned back to look at Malfoy and she tried to remember how she normally sat.

"I just thought that I should apologize for getting sick on your shoes," Hermione started, already feeling the heat rising in her cheeks. It'd be a miracle if she made it through this without crying.

Malfoy snorted into his pillow and slowly lifted himself up, waving a hand towards the lone window by his missing roommate's bed. Hermione peered over to look at it and noticed his slacks and shoes hanging outside. While Hermione was busy feeling guilty, Malfoy reached over to the bag of muffins and pulled it towards him. He glanced inside and grabbed one before putting it back on the desk. He unwrapped it slowly and Hermione waited until he had taken a bite, so he couldn't interrupt her, before she continued.

"And I don't know what you think you saw last night but," she hesitated. Malfoy had stopped chewing and was looking at her through the messy fringe of his bed head hair. "It wasn't whatever you thought it was. Derek was really drunk and he came onto me, and I was so drunk that I didn't react quick enough." Hermione finished in a blurb and Malfoy stared at her for a long moment before he slowly began chewing again, his pale eyes glancing down to concentrate on the muffin in his hand.

Hermione shifted in her seat, thinking that he was going to say something but he didn't. She took a breath and started to ramble on, feeling increasingly nervous as she went. She knew this was a stupid idea to come here.

"I just didn't want you to think that I would be with someone who had beaten you up simply because of your family heritage and-"

"Granger."

Hermione instantly shut up, her eyes looking over at him. He had stopped eating and was now staring at her intently, his cheek lying on his bare shoulder so he was looking at her sideways.

"I know you didn't kiss Derek. It's alright."

Hermione blinked at him, feeling the tight knot in her stomach loosen instantly. "You do?"

Malfoy nodded, breaking off another piece of his muffin and sticking it into his mouth.

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked.

Malfoy's eyes flickered briefly to Derek's passed out form before he looked back at his muffin and gave a shrug. Hermione sat in silence for a long time, slowly realizing that she could relax and feeling a bit relieved.

"You gonna eat yours?" Malfoy said, gesturing towards the bag. Hermione couldn't help it. She grabbed for the bakery bag and opened it hungrily, pulling out the muffin and biting off a large chunk of it.

They finished their muffins in silence. Every now and then Derek would make a noise and roll over to a new position, but he never once stirred. It wasn't until Hermione had thrown her wrapper into the bag and Malfoy had crushed the bag up that Hermione spoke again.

"So, we're okay?"

Malfoy sat up, leaning his elbows on his knees and stretching, as though to stall his answer, before he glanced over at her. He surveyed her face for a long time before he scratched at his cheek.

"Were we ever okay?"

Hermione was taken aback by this answer. She thought about their study sessions in the library and helping him study for his anatomy test, and him coming to study in her dorm, and their time at her party, before she had gotten sick, and how he had helped her during her very first party. She had thought they were okay, on some level, though she wasn't quite sure what level that was. Feebly, she gave a little shrug, staring at her slowly chipping manicured nails.

When Malfoy didn't say anything, Hermione stood to her feet to leave, starting to feel even more foolish than when she had opened the door and seen Astoria standing there. Her stomach still turned a little at the thought and she quickly hurried for the door.

She had just opened it when Malfoy's voice made her stop.

"I'll see you in the library on Monday Granger."

Hermione turned to look at him. He was still sitting in bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his hair messy as he watched her.

"How did you do on your anatomy test?"

Malfoy fell back onto his bed and lifted his pillow over his head. "Granger, it's the weekend." He dropped the pillow on top of his face and Hermione couldn't help the little smile that graced her lips as she closed the door behind her.

* * *

The letter arrived around 3 o'clock later that Saturday. Hermione stared down at it, unable to believe what she was reading. She didn't know whether it was some kind of joke or if the world really was trying to bring her crashing down. She gripped the letter tight between her fingers, trying hard to keep her throat from closing up like it so desperately wanted to.

Against her own desires, she read the letter over again.

 _Hermione-_

 _I'm sorry I wasn't able to write to you last time Harry sent you a letter, I wasn't home at the moment. There's really no easy way to tell you this so I'll just tell you outright. I've met someone Hermione. She's a really nice girl. She works in the Ministry. Dad knows her dad and we had lunch a bit ago, that's how I met her. I know we've been doing this weird thing, but I'm sure you'll understand. You've probably got loads of guys at uni trying to talk to her._

 _I hope you can forgive me. I know you'll like her once you do. Her and her dad are coming to stay for Christmas break._

 _Please don't be mad._

 _-Ron_

It started with a single tear. It rolled down her cheek so innocently, and before she knew it, it was dark outside and her eyes and cheeks were raw and her face was permanently red and she had a new raging headache.

She downed some more Aspirin and continued to cry. When Padma came in a little before dinner, she had been bewildered to see Hermione in such a state, but Hermione had sent her away just as soon as she tried to comfort her. Hermione didn't want to be comforted.

She should have known that Ron wasn't going to wait around for her to finish school. She should have known that he would find someone else, someone at work no less. She should have seen all the signs. His lack of enthusiasm to talk to her, and the missing letter. She had been so blinded. She had really hoped that he would pull through for her. But of course, he hadn't. He had let her down yet again.

Hermione had never cried so much in her life. By the time Saturday night came and Padma and Eleanor came back to their room, Hermione had cried herself into exhaustion and slept for a solid ten hours before waking up on Sunday.

Sunday came and went in much the same state at Saturday, though this time Hermione was accompanied by Eleanor and Padma whether she wanted them to be there or not, even though neither of them knew what was wrong. Hermione refused to tell them. She refused to be that girl who wallowed in such self-pity over a boy who hadn't even ever really been hers.

But by the time Monday morning came around, Hermione still couldn't seem to control herself. She would cry until she grew frustrated with herself and then she would be frustrated until she grew angry and then she would scream until she grew sad and then she would cry again. It was a vicious cycle, and Eleanor seemed to only seriously start to worry when Hermione missed all her Monday classes to lay in bed and sulk.

By dinner time on Monday, Hermione lay in a heap of blankets on the floor by her bed, staring off at the wall in front of her as though it were a looping movie with dried tear stains on her eyes. Eleanor had given her a bottle of vodka, unable to come up with anything else to cheer her up. It hadn't exactly worked in cheering her up, but it did make her stop crying as she held the bottle in her hands and gazed at the wall.

Eleanor and Padma used this subdued time to leave the room and go get dinner, promising to bring her back some. Hermione barely nodded to them, lifting the bottle to her lips and taking a sip. They had only been gone five minutes before a knock on the door brought Hermione back to reality.

"It's open," she grumbled to the door, lifting the bottle again to her lips and taking another sip. It burned all the way down and the door opened on the other side of the room. Hermione didn't bother looking up, figuring it was either Eleanor or Padma, but the voice that spoke to her made her turn quickly.

"You weren't in the library today," Malfoy stood beside her, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. His eyes scanned over the messy state of her hair and the bottle in her hands. "Are you drunk?"

Hermione scowled and held up the bottle, which had been full when she had started drinking it, and was now a quarter empty.

"I think so," Hermione said, blinking slowly and letting the bottle fall back down.

Malfoy gave a heavy sigh before he put his bag down and slowly sat himself down on the ground beside her.

"Where are Eleanor and Padma?" he asked conversationally, taking the bottle of vodka from her. Hermione watched him remove it from her hand before she gave a little shrug.

"I think they went hunting," she said, rubbing her eyes. "They're gonna bring me back a moose."

Malfoy shook his head a little before he placed the bottle of vodka out of her reach and turned to look at her. She stretched her arms high above her head before relaxing back against her bed and turning her eyes to look at him. Her head lulled when she saw his gray eyes looking at her, and she couldn't help but think how beautiful they looked.

"Granger," Malfoy said slowly. "What happened?"

It happened so suddenly. Hermione's eyes filled with tears that leaked down her cheeks and the pain of it all came rushing back to her, hitting her hard in the chest. She bit back a strangled sob and watched his image blur before her eyes.

"Ron found someone else. I guess I just wasn't good enough for him. First it was Lavender Brown. Now it's some girl from his work. I just don't think I'll ever be enough for him. And she's coming to stay with us for the holidays," Hermione pursed her lips together as the tears dripped down her cheeks and she could sort of see him a little clearer. She threw her hands up half-heartedly, "Yay!" she exclaimed as a fresh wave of tears fell down in her cheeks.

Malfoy watched her cry, his hands planted firmly in his lap as she tried to wipe her tears away. Suddenly she was shaking her head so furiously that the room was spinning.

"I won't get sick on you this time," she said, completely off topic. Malfoy gave a little laugh of amusement and Hermione felt someone pat her head twice. It was the most physical contact Malfoy had ever given her.

"Alright Granger," was all he said, settling back against the bed next to her.

"I'm sorry you always see me like this," Hermione continued, her mind moving farther and farther away from Ron the more she talked. "It's so embarrassing," she rambled on.

"It's alright Granger," was all he said.

"How was Astoria?"

Silence followed her question and for a moment Hermione's head was filled with Ron again. Tears dotted her eyes but Malfoy, sensing the danger that silence could bring, quickly hurried on to answer her whether he wanted to or not.

"What do you mean?"

"Is she a good lay?" Hermione didn't notice the clipped tone in her voice.

He blinked at her for a moment and then said, "Well, I wouldn't know."

"She was in your room," Hermione pressed on, wiping her face on her multiple layers of blankets she had piled up on the floor around her.

"Yes, she was," Malfoy said, a tone of sudden amusement in his voice, "She's my roommate, so she sort of has to be."

Hermione whipped around to look at him, the head rush she created caused the room to spin.

"She's your roommate?" Hermione echoed him, feeling like she were a hundred miles away from where she really sat.

"They couldn't find another male medical student and they asked if she wouldn't mind rooming with us," Malfoy explained, obviously wanting to keep her talking so she wouldn't start crying again.

Hermione snorted with an eye roll. "And why would she have a problem with that?" she said, jealousy thick in her voice. Malfoy raised an eyebrow at her but decided not to ask any questions. He didn't have time to anyway before Hermione was suddenly looking at him with wide eyes. "Those things in the jars are hers?"

Malfoy nodded and he paused for a moment before he confessed, "They gross me out a little."

Hermione stared at him and a little smile came to her lips, "Me too."

It was only a few minutes later that Hermione's head slumped onto Draco's shoulder and she was fast asleep.

When Hermione woke up again, the room seemed blurry and dark, save for a single lamp that was turned on. She lifted her head slowly, holding back a yawn and looking around to figure out where she was. She vaguely could make out that she was on the floor of her room and when she glanced over beside her, she realized she had just lifted her head off of Malfoy's chest.

He had a book in his hand, her muggle novel, and the lamp was on over his shoulder, providing him light to read with. Eleanor and Padma seemed to be fast asleep in their beds.

"How long was I sleeping?" Hermione whispered, trying not to feel embarrassed that she had fallen asleep on him or that he had let her.

"Couple hours," Malfoy said, stretching for what must have been the first time since Hermione had fallen asleep on him. His back cracked twice before he settled back down again, closing the muggle book and tossing it up onto her bed. "That book is rubbish," he said instantly.

Hermione scowled at him. "It is not. Just because muggles wrote it-"

"Exactly."

Hermione rolled her eyes, reaching her hands up to rub her face.

"What time is it?" she asked, glancing at the dark sky outside.

"Three in the morning."

Hermione groaned and pressed her forehead into the heels of her palms. She stayed like for a long moment, unaware of Malfoy rubbing his chin and staring off at the wall, contemplating something, until he turned to look at her.

"How's your stomach?" he asked suddenly.

Hermione looked over at him with a scowl and thought he must be worried that she was going to be sick on him again. She thought about how her stomach was feeling. She felt a little hungry, that's for sure, but she didn't feel like she was going to be sick any time soon.

"It's okay," she said, her eyebrows pulling together. "Why?"

Malfoy didn't say anything as he hauled himself up to his feet, brushing himself off before he looked down at her.

"Do you want to go somewhere?"

Hermione stared up at him, and she couldn't help the small feeling of excitement that bubbled up inside of her at those words.

"Go where?"


	9. The One with Harry and Ron

**Author's Note:**

 **Hello hello! So sorry for the wait, but my computer broke and I wasn't able to fix it until just last night! I hope you can forgive my absence (and this chapter for it is shorter than the others and I am still not happy with it-no matter how many times I rewrite it- and stick with me as I get back into the swing of things.  
**

 **As always, please feel free to leave a review! I love hearing from you!**

 **xxx**

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All characters, items and places mentioned in the story moving forward are the creation and copyright of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series. I am in no way taking credit for any of them.**

* * *

Hermione didn't know where they were walking to, and she didn't have much energy to ask. She still felt sluggish and tired, despite her nap earlier. Her eyes stared at the contours of Malfoy's back through his shirt as she followed behind him. He did not stop to look at her or to see if she was keeping up, and she didn't bother to remind him of her presence.

The alcohol that she had consumed earlier was slowly leaving her system, and she was beginning to get a clearer head. She felt foolish for allowing herself to crumble like that over a stupid letter from Ron, but she could also feel the hurt beginning to flood back inside her.

When they finally made their way into the Entrance Hall, Hermione assumed Malfoy would duck into the Mess Hall, or perhaps begin heading for the staircase to the medical wing. Instead, however, he simply tightened his jacket around himself and pushed open the front doors. Hermione hesitated for only a second before she quickly followed after him.

His legs were longer than hers and he moved quickly down the steps and across the grassy fields in front of the university. Hermione struggled to keep up with him, her ears becoming colder and her breath rising up in smoke clouds. The sky was still completely dark; it couldn't have been passed 4 in the morning.

"Malfoy," Hermione finally spoke up, after following him silently across the road and down the street towards Crescent Avenue. "Where are we going?"

Malfoy seemed to suddenly have become deaf, like Eleanor liked to when Hermione and Padma were asking too many questions, and he continued down the street. Hermione hustled to pull up beside him, shoving her fingers deep into the pockets of her jacket. She couldn't help but eye the dark cornfields peaking between the buildings, thinking of enemies hidden away, waiting to ambush her. Malfoy wouldn't do something like that though. Not after everything. Hermione felt sure of it, though she stayed decidedly alert.

Very suddenly, Malfoy cut in front of her and pushed open the door to a dimly lit shop to the right. Hermione stopped quick to avoid running into him and cautiously followed. She couldn't believe a shop would actually be open this late in the night, or rather, this early in the morning. But the door opened easily and Hermione could hear the sounds of low chatter coming from the very back.

Malfoy didn't stop to survey the darkened shelves of the store as he headed for the back room. Hermione stayed firmly planted by the door. It was only when Malfoy went to open the door leading to the mysterious back room that he noticed she had stopped following him, and he turned his light eyes to look at her quizzically.

"Where are we going?" Hermione asked firmly, crossing her arms tightly over her chest and mentally picturing where her wand was stowed in her pocket. Malfoy seemed to hesitate before he waved a hand towards the door in front of him.

"There's something here you might want to see," he said awkwardly, suddenly looking uncertain and angry with himself again, like he had back on that day when he had studied in her dorm. He seemed to do that any time he got too comfortable around her. Like being nice to her was physically hurting him, and he was trying to remind himself who it really was that he was hanging out with.

Hermione peered at the door behind him, cautiously taking a step forward. "What's in there?"

Malfoy's anger seemed to ebb away and a little smirk came onto his face as he tugged the door open and jerked his chin at the opening. "Why don't you come see?"

Hermione scowled at this before gathering her courage and stalking towards him. He moved aside to let her go first.

The room had a low ceiling and was brightly lit by a large fireplace in the back. Nearly a dozen orb-like eyes turned to look at her when she walked in, stooped down a little to avoid hitting her head, and Hermione squeaked when she noticed what was looking at her. House elves.

Anger began to bubble up inside her as Malfoy stooped his head, even further than she had to because he was taller than her, and came to stand beside her. She went to open her mouth, to chastise him about the mistreatment of house elves, when suddenly Malfoy raised a slender hand to silence her. Hermione glared at him hatefully.

"Hello Mister, Misses, what brings you back here so late?" A skinny elf asked, stepping through the crowd. Her bat-like ears drooped under a knitted hat that fell down to her non-existent eyebrows.

Hermione started at the sight of the hat and she quickly scanned the other elves, noting their sweaters and gloves. Some even wore little boots.

"You're clothed," Hermione couldn't help but gasp out loud, looking at them all in wonder.

"Yes Miss," the skinny elf who had addressed them said, looking quite pleased with herself. "We are free elves. After the vanquish of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and of the death of good elf Dobby-" A few elves stopped preparing what looked like pastries and bowed their heads, "We few thought that no elf should die for a cause that is not worth it."

"You know Dobby?" Hermione asked, feeling a little out of breath.

"Yes Miss," another, thicker elf said from by the stove. He wore a sweater with little golden snitches on it. "News of Dobby and his mission for freedom and his death-" Again, a few house elves bowed their heads so low that their noses scraped the ground, "traveled very fast after the war was won."

Hermione stared at them all and a lightness filled her heart that she hadn't felt in a long time. It was something like excitement. Something like happiness.

She whipped around to look at Malfoy, who seemed to be incredibly uncomfortable and busied himself with looking around at the little shelves and stoves. His cheeks were tinged pink, though whether from the stifling heat from the fire, the cold outside, or embarrassment, Hermione could not tell.

"How did you know about this?" Hermione asked.

When Malfoy realized she was talking to him, he shifted around as though trying to get comfortable. Suddenly he was pulling something out of his jacket pocket and passing it over to her. It was a long, rectangular cardboard box that looked vaguely familiar. Hermione reached out and took it from him, noting the smiling little toffee bite flying around on a broomstick.

"The toffees?" Hermione asked, confused.

Malfoy shrugged a little and pointed awkwardly to a small lettered paragraph in the bottom corner of the box. "Made by the employment of free, working house elves," he muttered, rubbing the palms of his hands together and glancing over his shoulder as though he expected someone to come barging in and reprimand him for being there.

"Free, working house elves," Hermione repeated under her breath, feeling a little smile overcome her.

It was only fifteen minutes later that Hermione found herself stepping out into the chill of the early morning with a bag of freshly made, warm brownies in her hands, and Malfoy following after her, still holding the empty cardboard box of toffees. The sky had turned a lighter gray than when they had entered the shop. Sunrise was coming, and Hermione didn't feel the least bit tired.

Malfoy started off down a side street, heading further away from the university, and Hermione followed after him, munching on a small square of gooey brownie.

"Why did you think to take me there?" Hermione asked as they appeared by the cornfields and took a left, heading up an inclining slope.

Malfoy shrugged at her question, reaching a hand up and scratching at his cheek. "I don't know," he said, and Hermione noted the uncomfortable tone in his voice and the way he refused to look at her. She didn't push the subject, but she had a sneaking suspicion that Draco Malfoy had just done something nice for her.

They walked the steep slope in silence, the sky around them growing brighter and brighter, before they finally pulled to a stop at the very top. Malfoy glanced at the cardboard box again before nodding to himself and gazing around. Hermione followed his lead, taking in the long field of corn, and after that, a barn in the distance with what looked like an old carousel beside it, and a tall water tower.

"What's up here?" Hermione asked curiously, noting the subtle sounds of a little stream hidden somewhere in the field below.

Malfoy held up the box in front of him and Hermione edged closer beside him to see it. He had flipped it over to the back, where Hermione could see a miniscule barn and a tiny old carousel and a tall water tower, surrounded by a field of corn. On the box was illustrated a tiny sun rising over the barn, casting a golden hue on the rest of the landscape.

When Malfoy lowered the box, the sky around them had become a satisfying pink color, and the sun would be arriving any moment.

Hermione didn't ask any questions and Malfoy didn't speak as they stood on the top of the hill, watching the sun inch its way closer and closer into view.

It happened in an instant. The sun poked up from behind the barn and a long ray of golden light filtered through the bars of the carousel, splashing over the cornstalks and making them glow. Hermione gripped the bag of brownies in her hands tighter, already having lost feeling in her fingers and ears. She almost couldn't tell, with how distracting the view was. It was a view she would have never been able to get back in London.

Just as suddenly as the moment was there, it was gone.

The sky turned from pink to a bright blue, and the whole of the sun overcame the barn, and suddenly it was a new day.

Hermione glanced at Malfoy, noting the shine in his hair and the look of solitude in his eyes. His jaw was locked and his arms hung limply by his sides, the cardboard box held in one of his hands.

"I can't figure it out," Hermione said slowly, drawing Malfoy from his thoughts. For the first time all night, he turned to look at her, catching her eyes. "I can't tell if deep down you're a good person or not."

Malfoy looked away from her, but a little smirk had found its way onto his pale lips. "I'm not."

Hermione looked at him and she couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "I don't believe you," she said quietly.

Malfoy's smirk slowly slid away and he turned to look at her again. Hermione didn't know the look that currently sat on his face. A mixture of sadness and hardness; like he couldn't figure out his own thoughts. Neither of them said anything, and when they turned to head back towards the university they had done so silently. It was only when they pushed open the front doors and entered the heated building that Malfoy finally spoke.

"I'll see you later Granger," and he started towards the stairs for the medical wing. But Hermione couldn't just let him walk away.

"Thank you Malfoy," She said, and she truly felt that she meant it.

Her words were like a spell that stopped him in his tracks. He stayed like that, refusing to look at her, one hand resting on the door handle to the stairwell. Then he turned towards her and nodded his head, his cheeks flushed from the cold and his dark jacket contrasting sharply with his pale hair.

"Yeah," he said awkwardly, nodding before he pushed open the door and escaped his embarrassment, disappearing into the stairwell.

* * *

Halloween was fast approaching and Hermione was growing anxious the longer she went without hearing from Harry. She still hadn't found it in herself to reply to Ron's letter. She didn't know what she would say. She couldn't very well congratulate him, because she had assumed that they were working towards being together themselves, but since they had never made it official, she couldn't particularly be angry with him either.

She settled for not speaking with him until he spoke to her first- which didn't seem like it was going to happen.

Finally, two days before Halloween, an owl arrived on Hermione's windowsill and pecked at the glass.

Hermione looked up from her book, wrapped tightly in a wool sweater and encased in a layer of blankets.

"I got it," Malfoy said from his spot at her desk, lumbering to his feet and opening the window.

It had become a sort of tradition for Malfoy to find himself at Hermione's door whenever he and his roommate seemed to disagree on something. That day, it had been because Derek was angry at Malfoy for having a brief conversation with Eleanor outside the Mess Hall. It seemed that even though Derek was "completely over Eleanor" he still hated the fact that Malfoy had more interaction with her than he did.

Malfoy had sought refuge in Hermione's room not fifteen minutes ago.

The owl hooted at Malfoy when he opened the window and dipped into the room, landing on the pillow by Hermione's elbow. Malfoy leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over the chest of his black knit sweater and looking at the owl with an undistinguished look on his face. "Weasley?" he asked in a clipped tone.

"Unlikely," Hermione said, trying not to show how sad she truly felt about it. Padma, Eleanor and even Malfoy had been ranting about Ron and how upset he had made Hermione the previous days. The three of them had seemed to develop a bond over their mutual dislike for Ron's lack of tact. Hermione reached toward the owl and untied the letter, but before she could even begin to open it, the owl turned and swooped out of the room again.

Malfoy closed the window against the bitter breeze while Hermione curiously opened the letter. She recognized Ginny's handwriting instantly.

 _Hermione-_

 _I tried to stop them. I told them going to see you was only going to make things weirder and that you needed time and not to bother you, but they wouldn't listen. They're convinced that if you and Ron see each other in person that you guys can talk things out. Though I can't remember the last time Ron ever talked anything out with anyone._

 _I'm sorry. They'll be there tomorrow around lunch time._

 _-Ginny_

Hermione's eyebrows pulled together and she scowled down at the letter in her hands. She didn't quite know how to feel about all of this. Of course she was more than thrilled that they were finally taking some time to come and see her, but she was exceedingly nervous to speak with Ron after she had blatantly ignored his letter.

"What is it?" Malfoy asked. He had resumed his stance leaning against the wall, his arms crossed so tightly over his chest that his shoulders were raised up almost level with his ears. Hermione couldn't read his expression, as she rarely could whenever he got into a mood, but his pale eyes were ever so intent on the letter sitting in her hands.

Hermione shifted awkwardly on her bed, removing the letter from his line of sight. With nothing else to look at, his eyes darted up to catch hers.

"Ron and Harry are coming tomorrow to see me," she almost smiled, but instantly forced herself not to when she noticed the malicious glint that flashed in Malfoy's eyes. She knew that Ron and Harry showing up was not what Malfoy would call good news, but Hermione couldn't help but be excited to see her two best friends again.

An uncomfortable, tense silence fell between the two of them as Malfoy took a long, sweeping glance around Hermione's room before suddenly he was pushing himself off the wall and stalking towards his books. Hermione seemed startled by his sudden anger.

"Where are you-"

"Back to my dorm," Malfoy said curtly, stuffing one of his enormously large textbooks on magical maladies back into his bag. Hermione stiffened instinctually at his tone.

"Are you-" she started, but again, he interrupted her.

"No."

Hermione glowered at his back as he lifted his bag onto his tense shoulder and started towards the door.

"Malfoy," Hermione called out, exasperated. Malfoy faltered slightly and Hermione took advantage of this, removing herself from her encumbering blankets and stalking towards him. "You're angry Harry and Ron will be here, I know," she said at once. Malfoy opened his mouth but Hermione pressed on, "They'll only be here a day."

"It doesn't matter to me what company you keep," Malfoy said, and for a moment his voice was as vicious as it had been back when they were in school. Hermione glared up at him and he glared right back at her.

"Fine," Hermione said finally, huffing and reaching towards the door, opening it and looking at him challengingly. "Good night," she said, knowing full well it was only noon.

Malfoy sniffed with indifference, though his eyes shifted back towards the desk where he had been working at, before he stalked past her out into the hallway. His stubbornness and acceptance of her challenge made Hermione even angrier, and she couldn't help but slam the door after him and glare at it as though it had personally offended her.

"Git," she grumbled under her breath, before sourly returning to her book.

* * *

The next morning Hermione awoke feeling giddy and nervous. She had told Padma and Eleanor the good news last night when they had all gone to dinner together, and was only slightly discouraged when Eleanor shared Malfoy's same ill feelings towards the idea of Ron coming to see her. But Hermione didn't let Eleanor's snide comments throughout dinner, Padma's concerned glances or the sight of Malfoy sitting alone in the back of the Mess Hall deter her spirit.

She changed quickly and hurried down to the library, hoping to finish her essay before Harry and Ron arrived so that she would not have to waste any time with them worrying about her homework.

The morning passed slowly and Hermione couldn't help but occasionally glance towards the library doors, expecting to see a sleepy, messy-haired Malfoy making his way towards her, a stack of hastily written flashcards in one of his pale hands. By the time lunch came around, however, Hermione gave up on him and, finishing her conclusion with a flourish of her quill, hurriedly packed up and headed for the Entrance Hall.

Harry's appearance at Hermione's university sent a shockwave through the students. She could see, before she actually laid eyes on Harry, every student's eyes turn in his direction as he made his way up the stone steps, a lanky and nervous looking Ron following behind him.

Hermione smiled widely when they came into the entrance hall, gazing around for her. Barely able to contain her excitement, she hurried forward, engulfing Harry quickly into a tight hug, which he returned with a laugh.

"It's good to see you too Hermione," he said good-naturedly, adjusting his glasses up the bridge of his nose, which Hermione had knocked aside in her haste to hug him.

Hermione glanced at Ron but immediately turned away, unable to look at him properly. She hadn't expected the sudden pain she felt to explode in her chest at the very sight of him.

"Hey," he said awkwardly, obviously having expected a much warmer greeting. Hermione tried to nod at him and flash a forced smile before a blur of blond in the distance distracted her.

She peered between Harry's and Ron's figures, catching sight of Malfoy quickly retreating to the staircase of the medical wing. She thought about calling out to him, then immediately realized how stupid that would be, before she watched him shove aside another wizard, force open the door and disappear from view.

"Any chance of lunch?" Harry said, misinterpreting Hermione's sudden lack of attention, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. "I'm starved."

Hermione tried to push Malfoy out of her mind as she nodded fervently. "Of course! Follow me."


	10. The One With the First Kiss

**Author's Note:**

 **Hello lovelies!**

 **It's been so long since I've written anything because of school and everything, but I graduated and I moved into my own apartment and on this late night I was rereading some of my old stuff and I missed it so much that I spontaneously decided to continue writing!**

 **I know a lot of you are still following along and you guys have been waiting so patiently for me to return and for that I thank you a hundred times over. You have no idea how much all of your kind words and reviews mean to me. I keep writing because you keep reading 3**

 **Enough sappiness I guess. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and I hope to see you again real soon xxx**

* * *

The day went by slowly. Almost agonizingly slow. Whenever there was a spare moment, Hermione found herself thinking about Draco, and how upset he had seemed when he had spotted her with Harry and Ron. She didn't really understand why he was so angry – it wasn't any different from her hanging out with Eleanor or Padma, and it wasn't any different than him hanging out with Astoria.

Still, she couldn't seem to get him out of her.

Dinner had approached, and Hermione found herself sitting at her usual table with Padma, Eleanor, a boy Eleanor had been flirting with recently, and Harry and Ron. Eleanor was doing a wonderful job at keeping the conversation going, and Hermione took the time to glance about the Mess Hall, scanning for that familiar tuft of blonde hair.

Draco, however, appeared to be absent.

"Hermione," Eleanor said in a sing-song voice, waving her hand over her face and bringing her swiftly back to reality.

"Sorry, what?" She asked, trying not to seem too distracted.

"The concert tonight? The one I told you about a couple of weeks ago? You're still going, aren't you?"

All eyes had turned on her.

Hermione glanced at Harry and Ron. She had completely forgotten about the concert. "Oh, well, only if you want to, of course," she said, more so to Harry than Ron. She had been doing her best to avoid speaking to him as much as possible. Though she truly hated being in his presence at the moment and pretending like everything was okay, it felt nice to be around them again, and she had missed Harry's company dearly.

"Sure, only for a bit though. We've got another case tomorrow," Harry said, smiling at them all.

"Oh, goodie! Hermione is quite the party animal, it wouldn't be any fun without her," Eleanor teased.

Hermione's cheeks instantly lit up with heat and she tried breezing past the subject. Ron, however, instantly latched onto it.

"Hermione? A party animal?" He looked incredulously between Eleanor, Padma, Hermione and back again. "Are we talking about the same girl."

Having known all about Hermione's drama with Ron and having to console Hermione after that letter, Eleanor had been slightly colder to Ron than she normally was to anybody else, but there was something about Eleanor that she couldn't allow an opportunity of conversation or gossip to pass by without her input, even if it's with someone she didn't particularly like.

"Oh, yes. Hermione is the best," Eleanor smiled at her and Hermione tried hard not to shove her face into her hands. She was just thankful that nobody had brought up Malfoy or the fact that she had thrown up all over his shoes. Or worse, how close they had become since then.

After dinner wrapped up, Hermione led Harry and Ron after Eleanor and Padma out the front doors of the university and down into the village. The sun had already set long ago, and the chilly October air made Hermione shiver. She hadn't thought to bring a jacket with her.

The streets were alive with drunk students wandering from one pub to another. Some of them recognized Harry instantly, but most of them were too wrapped up in their own lives to notice that the Chosen One was among them. Hermione was grateful for this. The last thing she needed was anymore unwanted attention following her around. She had only just started to blend in.

Eleanor led them straight to a small, dark pub on the East side of the village. At first, Hermione thought she must have been mistaken on the location, for it seemed as though the pub was closed down. It wasn't until Eleanor pulled out her wand from her boot and waved it over a side alley that a door materialized out of nowhere and opened to reveal a long staircase leading down into a flashing, neon hallway. Loud music could be heard filtering from below.

"Wicked," Ron said, looking truly impressed.

Hermione had grown used to the wild lifestyle and parties that came with being a university student. She didn't even think twice about what it must be like to experience it all from the point of view of an outsider. It was kind of empowering.

Padma looped arms with Hermione and they descended down into the basement club.

The music wasn't particularly great, and the alcohol was vastly more expensive than the free alcohol she was used to obtaining when being dragged to parties, but it was nice to get away and let loose, even though a small part of her was having anxiety considering it was Thursday and she had classes tomorrow.

She tried her hardest not to drink more than two butterbeers.

Eleanor had taken Padma out into the mosh pit of the audience and bobbed in and out of sight between the sweating, dancing bodies of students, while Hermione found herself standing at the bar in the back with Harry on one side and Ron on the other.

"So, you're having fun here, then?" Harry yelled over the noise at her. She smiled at him.

"I actually really am," she said, thankful to have found such a connection with Eleanor and Padma… and Draco.

"That's good. I was a bit worried by your letters that you weren't going to like it."

"How's it been with Malfoy? Do you see him much?" Ron yelled in.

Hermione looked at him for a long time, trying to think of how to react to that. A small part of her wanted to defend Draco, though she quickly squashed that bit down. The truth was, without Draco, she wasn't sure how well she'd be enjoying university. Their study sessions in the library, him coming to her dorm to hang out, and their occasional group outings with Eleanor and Padma, really were some of the highlights of her life there. She didn't know how to properly say this, but she actually enjoyed being around him.

Sure, he could be sulky sometimes, and a bit recluse, but she didn't need someone to share all her secrets with (though she supposed she sort of already did share a lot of her secrets with him considering how much she liked to talk when she was drunk). She just wanted a familiar face. Someone who she could count on if she was stressed or feeling lonely. Someone who wouldn't make it awkward.

Draco kept everything at surface level and didn't have time for bullshit, and Hermione felt like she really needed that these days.

And for Ron to just show up, out of nowhere, when she never gave him any indication that she wanted to see him, and to criticize something he knew nothing about, made something inside Hermione seize up with anger. She set down her butterbeer, proud of herself for only drinking one and a half and cleared her throat.

"I need to go to the loo," she said, throwing out the first excuse she could think of. She needed to put some distance between them.

Ron seemed taken aback by her sudden departure, but she found that she truly didn't care. She didn't care if she hurt his feelings at the moment. Perhaps he even deserved it.

The line at the loo was incredibly long. Hermione had only been standing there for a few moments when the sound of liquid splashing on the ground and someone yelling called her attention away. Down a dark hallway, leading to what she assumed must be a backdoor entrance, was a guy pushing someone away and yelling. A flash of blonde hair made her stomach drop.

Draco had just drunkenly slammed into somebody, successfully spilling their drink all over the floor, before the guy ended up pushing him away. He stumbled, grabbing onto the wall. It was clear, even from this far away, that he was wasted.

"Draco," Hermione yelled without thinking.

He glanced over his shoulder to look at her for a split second before he continued on his way, either too drunk to notice who she was or too upset to care. He left out the backdoor entrance.

Hermione glanced back out on the dancefloor, where Eleanor and Padma were talking to Harry and Ron at the bar. They were laughing and smiling, Eleanor was probably telling a crazy story, and for a moment Hermione worried she was telling them about some of her drunk adventures before a feeling hit her that she wasn't quite used to.

She found that she didn't care.

Abandoning her spot in the loo line, she rushed for the backdoor entrance.

The brisk air instantly chilled her flushed skin and it felt nice to take a deep breath of fresh air. She wandered out into the street and glanced up the alley, spotting Draco's bright hair bobbing several paces ahead of her.

She hurried to catch up to him, squeezing between a couple huddled together on the sidewalk. Draco rounded a corner towards the university and Hermione caught up with him just as she rounded the same corner.

"Draco," she said, falling into step beside him. She could tell from his rumpled shirt and set features that he was having a rough night. "Are you alright?"

He blinked down at her for a long moment, as though trying to recognize her, before he shook his head roughly and continued on his way. "Shouldn't you be with Potter and Weasley?" he bit out at her.

Hermione suspected this type of response and found that it didn't bother her as much as she thought it would have. Crossing her arms over her chest, she shrugged a little.

"I guess… It felt sort of weird to hang out with them again today," she said truthfully. Because she had been truthful with him for the past few weeks, and to her, nothing had changed between them.

Draco didn't say anything back and Hermione didn't push him. She was just happy that he wasn't shutting her out.

Arriving on campus, they had only just started up the front steps when Draco's foot slipped, and he went down. Hermione tried not to laugh, reaching down to take his arm.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He ripped his arm from her grasp, sitting himself down on the steps and forcing frustrated fingers through his hair. "I'm fine. I don't need your help."

Hermione's playful feeling disappeared, and she slowly sat down beside him. He seemed incredibly distracted and unable to look her in the face. They sat like that for a long time in silence. It reminded Hermione of the night of her first ever party when she had fallen on these same steps and Draco had sat next to her so she didn't look so stupid sitting on the ground by herself.

"Is everything okay?" she asked again, after a long moment of silence.

Draco looked at her, and finally, an emotion registered on his face. It was anger.

"No," he said, very matter-of-factly, but looking away. Hermione's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Then what's wrong?"

"I don't know," he said roughly, clasping his hands together and leaning his elbows on his pointed knees.

"Draco –"

"I don't know, okay? I just…" he shook his head back and forth, rolling his eyes at the same time, as though he were more annoyed with himself than anything.

Hermione wanted so badly for him to tell her what was going through his head. It was an ache that she didn't understand, but she hated how angry and distant he had suddenly become.

"Is it because of Harry and Ron coming to visit?" she asked slowly, as though she were afraid of angering him.

He looked at her, opened his mouth, paused and snapped it shut again, clenching his jaw tightly. Up close, Hermione could see how bloodshot his eyes were. She wondered where he was coming from and how much he had to drink that night.

"Are you too drunk?" she asked. After a moment of him not answering, she said, "You're not going to puke on my shoes, right?"

It was the tiniest smirk, but it flitted across his pale lips and the side made Hermione relax immediately. He wasn't as upset as he seemed. Perhaps he was merely too drunk.

"Do you need help to your room?"

Draco didn't seem to like the idea of Hermione 'helping' him, and as soon as she asked, he was hauling himself up to his wobbly feet. Though he didn't answer, Hermione stood as well and walked with him. She didn't trust him not to tumble and fall down all those flights of stairs.

Arriving at his door, Hermione hoped against hope that Astoria or Derek wouldn't be inside. As of late, she was having a hard time standing either of them and did her best to avoid going to Draco's dorm room.

Pulling his key from his pocket, Draco shakily unlocked the door and entered the dark room. Hermione hesitantly followed him and relaxed upon realizing that they were quite alone.

It was strange to think that she preferred to be alone with Draco, rather than have other people around.

Throwing his keys onto his desk, Draco slumped onto the couch, staring down at the ground with a quizzical expression on his face. Hermione stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, looking around and wondering what to do next. She had never dealt with a drunk Draco before and she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do now that she had escorted him to his room.

Did she leave?

Turning slowly, she started for the door, thinking that if he had wanted her to stay, he would have said something by now, and thinking that she had to find Harry and Ron before they left to say goodbye.

"Granger," Draco said from the couch, causing her to stop instantly in her tracks. She turned to look at him. He ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated and confused, before his stormy eyes connected with hers. He never continued with his sentence.

Hesitantly, Hermione walked over to the couch, gently placing herself down on it next to him and waiting. It seemed like there was something on his mind, like he was on the verge of spewing it out to her, but he couldn't find the right way to start it. Hermione eyed him cautiously, wondering what could have set him off like this.

Finally, he spoke.

"I feel… different."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Different? "Different bad? Like you're going to puke?"

"No." He said curtly, rolling his eyes. Again, this action seemed more to himself than directed at her. His head lulled to look at her and he caught her eyes. "About you."

"Oh," Hermione said, a little uncomfortably. They had gone the whole semester playing stupid and acting like them hanging out was just a normal routine of their lives, and now Draco was suddenly bringing up how different it was. She guessed they couldn't have ignored it forever. "That's good though, isn't it?"

"I don't know," he said, rubbing his palms onto his pants and fidgeting. His eyes never left her face.

"I think it might be," she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. She didn't think now was the best time to be having this conversation with him.

He stared at her for a long time, letting the silence fall around them. Hermione cleared her throat and brushed her hair behind her ear, trying to find something to talk about to break the silence. So, she did what she did best. She started to ramble.

"I just mean, I don't know many people here besides Eleanor and Padma, and it doesn't seem like you're very keen on making many friends, and it's nice to have people who you're familiar with and you can just fall into some sort of routine. I know we've still got our differences, but I think, given the circumstances, that it's nice that we've been able to –"

It happened so quickly.

One minute she was rambling on like an idiot, and the next there was something holding her lips closed. She blinked multiple times before she came to the sudden realization that it was Draco's lips that were keeping hers closed.

Was this real, or was this some sort of strange dream she was having?

It felt real. The couch felt solid and his lips felt firm and his breath across her face felt warm – yes, it all felt very real.

Snapping back to reality, Hermione lifted her hands and pressed against Draco's shoulders, surprised at how easy he was to push away. Their lips broke apart and almost instantly, Draco turned over and hurled over the arm of the couch. Hermione stared at him, completely bewildered and a little embarrassed. What had just happened?

"That wasn't from you," he grumbled over the side of the couch, without looking at her or refusing to do so. "I closed my eyes too long. I got dizzy."

Hermione took a deep breath and closed her own eyes, trying hard to calculate what had just happened. When she opened her eyes again, Draco was still leaning over the side of the couch, as though he were intent on staying like that. Suddenly, a fresh wave of sickness came over him and he puked again.

Shaking her head, Hermione pushed all of her thoughts away and tried to focus on the moment. Standing to her feet, she pushed Draco's hair back from his forehead to gauge how sick he was and to see if he was going to puke again. He seemed to be taking deeper breaths, and Hermione judged that he was probably done emptying his stomach. Reaching over, she pulled him to his feet and helped him over to his bed.

He collapsed onto the bed with a huff, groaning loudly. Hermione removed his shoes and pulled off his shirt, which had gotten soaked in puke, before throwing it into his hamper. She Scrougifyed up the vomit by the couch and walked over to Draco, who had completely passed out in the time it took her to clean up.

She stared down at his pale, peaceful face while he slept, brushing a few strands of her blonde hair back before he pulled the sheets up to his chin and hurried from the room.

It wasn't until she was back in her own room, changed into her pajamas and lying in bed that she truly grasped the situation.

Draco Malfoy had just kissed her.

Granted, he was incredibly drunk and probably completely unaware of what he had done, and he had puked immediately after, which didn't really help her confidence much, but it was still a kiss. A solid, purposeful, kiss.

Hermione reached up in the darkness and touched at her lips. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel them.

But why would she want to? She thought, as her eyes flew open again. This was incredibly insane. Studying together and occasionally hanging out was one thing. Now they were kissing? What in Merlin's beard was happening to her? To them?

She groaned loudly when she remembered that she had intended to go and find Harry and Ron after she had helped Draco back to his room. She was sure Eleanor and Padma would entertain them enough for her and probably send them home safe and sound, and she did feel a bit guilty for abandoning them to go help Draco, but something inside of her still felt angry and almost out of place having been around them all day.

Rolling onto her side and yanking her pillow over her head, Hermione tried to doze off.

* * *

The next morning felt strange. Almost like whatever had happened last night, hadn't really happened. Except, of course, it did, because, at breakfast, Eleanor and Padma kept asking her where she had gone last night.

Hermione didn't feel like lying to them, but she also didn't really want them to know the truth. She settled for somewhere in the middle.

That she had gone back to the university alone because she wasn't feeling right and didn't want to be around Ron and ended up falling asleep back at her dorm.

They believed her, from what she could tell, and dropped the subject. Their dislike for Ron and understanding of how uncomfortable it had been for her was enough for them to at least pretend to believe her lies, and she was more than fine with along with it.

It wasn't until later that day when she had gone through her classes in a daze and arrived in the library that the topic of Draco was brought back to her mind.

She sat at their usual table, staring at the empty spot in front of her where he normally sat and trying to understand what had happened last night. Her books lay open, and abandoned, in front of her.

What did it mean that Draco had kissed her last night? Had he even been fully aware of who he was kissing? Perhaps she was simply reading too much into this. She had never really dealt with Draco drunk before, perhaps he just got too close and personal when he was drunk. And why did it matter to her so much anyway? It's not like she liked him like that, so who cares why it happened?

Lost in her thoughts, she almost didn't hear him approach until he was standing in front of her.

Her cheeks instantly flushed at the sight of him.

He wore a simple t-shirt and some nice pants, his hair mussed and sticking up like he hadn't the time or the energy to fix it. Over his shoulder, he carried his bag and under one of his arms was one of his large textbooks and clasped in his right hand was a familiar, brown paper bag that he held so tightly his knuckles turned white.

They stayed like that for a long time, simply staring at each other in silence, before Draco made the first move.

He placed the brown bag in front of her on top of her open textbook.

When Hermione didn't move to open it, he began setting up his books and notepads in their usual place across from her and sat himself down. He placed his arms on the table and looked at her, waiting for her to open the bag.

Hesitantly, Hermione reached for it, even though she had a small, sneaking suspicion that she already knew what was inside.

And she was right.

Inside sat two chocolate muffins.

"Is this going to be our thing when we do stupid stuff when we're drunk?" Hermione asked, trying to breeze past the awkwardness.

To her surprise, a little smirk tugged at Draco's pale lips. "I was hoping so."

Reaching into the bag and pulling out the muffins, Hermione took a bite from one, chewed it thoughtfully all the while pretending to scrutinize him, before she held out the other muffin to him. He reached out his slender fingers and took it from her.

"I guess I forgive you," she said.

Draco shifted in his seat before he set his muffin down without taking a bite from it.

"How was your night with Potter and Weasley?" he asked, with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Well," Hermione said, removing some more wrapper from her muffin. "If you remember anything from last night, I told you how it went. It was kind of awkward being around them again."

"I don't know why I did it," Draco said, glancing down at his opened books. Hermione froze. She didn't exactly expect them to talk about the events of last night in detail. But Draco was being more open than he had been all semester, and something about it drew Hermione in.

"Does there have to be a reason? You were drunk," she said, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal, even though she was fairly certain that it was.

Draco didn't say anything. That familiar, stoic expression came over him again and he nodded, picking up his muffin and taking a big bite out of it. A few minutes passed in thick silence as they ate their muffins.

"How's your hangover?" Hermione asked, finally breaking it.

Draco snorted and rolled his eyes. "I don't get hangovers."

Something about his tone relaxed all the muscles in Hermione's body, and though a small part of her brain was still nagging her about their kiss and about Draco's drunken state, she pushed it aside for the time being.


	11. The One on Halloween Night

**Author's Note:**

 **A new chapter! I think I really like this one!**

 **Make sure to favorite/follow and let me know what you think!**

 **Enjoy! xxx**

* * *

She couldn't take it anymore.

She had to say something.

It was slowly beginning to eat her up inside.

"Draco," she said, quick and curt. "Stop. Tapping."

Draco's quill froze instantly, and he glared at her, though it wasn't the same malicious glare they would give each other back in school.

"It helps me concentrate," he said back, pushing a hand through his hair.

It had been several days since Draco showed up in the library with his chocolate peace offering, and again here they sat, at their usual table across from each other, books open and crumpled up pieces of paper littering the ground and table.

"What are you doing for Halloween?" Draco suddenly asked, after spending a few moments balancing his quill on his finger.

"I'm sure Eleanor has something planned," Hermione said, squinting down at Draco's essay, which she was proof-reading for him. "What about you?"

"I don't know yet."

Silence enveloped them once more while Hermione ticked off a few spots on his essay that he would need to work on, before sliding the parchment back over to him.

"You can come with us if you want," she offered, picking up her coffee and taking a sip from it.

The rest of the library had emptied hours ago and most of the lights had been turned off, but with Draco's deadline for his essay and Hermione's test tomorrow, they decided to stay up.

"To some crowded, stuffy party with people in costumes?" he said, looking like he'd rather be invited to the Giant Squid's funeral.

"Or you could sit alone in your room and mope all night," Hermione teased. "It's up to you."

Draco bent his head down to read over his essay, not responding to her immediately as he checked over the marks she had made on his paper. Hermione had just picked up her own textbook to resume her studying when he spoke again.

"Or we could do something else."

Hermione looked up at him, her eyebrows furrowing. "Something else?"

Draco looked at her, his quill twirling around in his fingers. "You know, like, stay in and watch those muggle things you're always on about."

Hermione blinked at him. "Movies?"

"Yeah," he said, looking down at his paper again, but not before Hermione noticed the light tinge that appeared on his cheeks. "Those things."

Hermione shifted in her seat. "You don't want to go out?" she asked.

Draco shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know."

Hermione thought about his offer. She had brought up movies a few times, in an attempt to explain them to Padma and Draco at the dinner table, but he had always mocked them, and she hardly thought he would ever want to watch them himself. Although, it would be a nice change of pace from going out. Though she adored Eleanor dearly and was always flattered when she was invited to go out, she was beginning to grow tired of avoiding conversation with drunk boys and doing stupid things that ended up embarrassing her the next morning.

Perhaps it would be nice to stay in.

"There's some muggle equipment on the second floor for the muggle study courses. I think I saw a television there once." Hermione said thoughtfully.

Draco looked back up at her, hesitated and then nodded. "Okay."

* * *

"Why aren't you coming out again?" Eleanor asked, fixing her make up in the mirror while Padma adjusted the ears on the top of her head.

"I told you," Hermione said, pulling a sweater on over her head. "I don't really feel like going out."

"Uh-huh. And the true reason being…" Padma prodded, looking at her.

Hermione bit her lip, debating on what to say. She still hadn't told either of them about the night she had helped Draco back to his dorm and he had kissed her, and she felt like if she told them that she was skipping on going out to stay in with Draco that they would guess instantly what was going on.

But what was going on? Surely nothing.

It just so happened that neither of them wanted to go out and didn't want to be alone, so why not spend Halloween together? It wasn't like they didn't hang out alone in the library or in her dorm room studying almost every night, so how was this any different?

"Well," she hesitated. "Draco invited me to hang out here."

Eleanor turned abruptly from fixing her make up. "You're ditching us for Draco?" She paused, and then a smile crept onto her painted lips. "Ooh, you're ditching us for _Draco_."

"Don't say it like that," Hermione said. "He just doesn't want to go out and I'm not really in the mood either."

"Sure, of course," Padma said, though something about her tone and the smile on her face made Hermione think that she didn't believe her.

"We hang out together all the time," Hermione continued to argue, unsure why it bothered her what they thought she was up to with her old classmate. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Why is tonight any different?"

"I don't know, you tell us," Eleanor prodded, forgetting all about her makeup and sitting herself down on the end of her bed like she was about to get some juicy gossip.

"There's nothing to tell," Hermione said quickly, bundling up her blanket.

"Having a sleep-over are you?" Padma jumped in, looking giddy.

Throwing down her blanket, Hermione rolled her eyes. "Look, we're just going to the projection room to watch some films. After that, we'll both go to our own rooms." They didn't look like they believed her. "We're just friends!" She yelled adamantly.

"Okay Hermione," Eleanor said.

"We believe you." Padma added, smiling.

"Oh, won't you two just leave already," Hermione said, tossing a pillow at the pair of them, who burst out laughing before quickly getting ready again.

It took them another 20 minutes of pruning before they were heading out the door.

"Be safe," Hermione called after them.

"Have fun tonight!" Eleanor called, in a teasing voice, which Hermione chose to ignore.

Alone in her room, she couldn't help but become a little nervous thinking about her plans for the night. Surely it was just Eleanor and Padma getting to her. Draco wasn't expecting anything, what a ridiculous thing to even consider. She shouldn't have told them her plans.

Shaking her head, she bundled up her blanket again, picked it up, and headed for the second floor.

When she arrived, she was surprised to see that Draco was already there, leaning back in one of the chairs and staring out the window. The sun had already set, and the sounds of excited college students leaving the building drifted upward.

Placing her bundled up blanket down on the table closest to her, she walked over to him, hunkering down into her sweater and crossing her arms against the cold.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, pulling up beside him.

Draco pointed down towards a group of people below. At first, Hermione didn't recognize them through the dark and in their costumes, but the unmistakable figures of Astoria and Derek suddenly came into focus, along with Eleanor and Padma, who came sprinting up to them.

"I hope they have fun tonight," Hermione said, shaking her head at the way Derek immediately seemed to follow Eleanor around, and the way that she completely ignored him.

Turning on her heels, Hermione headed over to the television set.

"What do you want to watch?" she asked, pulling it out from the corner and glancing through some of the discarded dvds that lay on the shelf. "It looks like there are a few scary ones."

"Scary ones?" Draco asked, having gotten up from his seat and coming over to stand near her.

It was then that Hermione realized that Draco had changed into sweatpants and a sweater. It was very rare to see him in such attire, except for the few times she had knocked on his door and interrupted his sleep.

"Yeah, you know, spooky, Halloween," she said, noticing the way Draco shifted next to her.

"We can watch one I guess."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at him. "You're not scared, are you?"

"I don't get scared," he said.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. "Oh really? So, in second year when the pixies got out of their cages in Transfiguration, you weren't scared? Or perhaps when we had detention in the Forbidden Forest? Or what about near the Shrieking Shake when -"

Draco glared at her. "That was different. I was a child."

"Aren't you still?" she teased, picking up The Wolfman. "Here, this one isn't that scary, and it's got werewolves in it. Something you'll be familiar with."

"Werewolves?" Draco's eyebrows furrowed, taking the disc from her. "Muggles know about werewolves?"

"Well, no," she said, taking it back from him and putting it into the player. "They don't _know_ exactly. To muggles, werewolves are just legends. Some witch or wizard wrote a novel ages ago about werewolves, and a copy ended up in a muggle library. The muggles just assumed that whoever had written it had a great imagination. It sold thousands of copies."

"Oh," Draco said, still looking rather confused.

Hermione walked over to the closest table, rearranging her blanket on top of it and sitting down before wrapping the blanket around her shoulders. Draco came over and sat beside her, looking intently at the television screen.

"I don't see anything," he said. "It doesn't work."

"I haven't started it yet," she said, rolling her eyes before clicking the play button on the remote.

* * *

Watching a wizard see a movie for the first time was a lot more entertaining that Hermione thought it would be. For the first 30 minutes of the film, Draco didn't once say anything or take his eyes from the screen in front of them. He was completely mesmerized by the moving pictures. Finally, when it came to the part of the movie where Simon Merrells first turned into a werewolf, Draco winced and looked at her.

"So, he's a werewolf then?"

"Well, yes, but only in the film. Not in real life. He's just an actor." She explained.

"Then how have they caught him on the television changing into a werewolf?"

Hermione sighed a little, a smile crawling onto her face. "It's hard to explain. Just watch the movie."

Having tried to answer as many of Draco's questions as possible, the first film ended, and Hermione sat in front of the shelf, searching for another one to pop in.

Draco sat on the table, wrapped in Hermione's blanket, looking far off and thinking. Hermione assumed that he was just thinking about the film they had just watched.

"I can't stop thinking about it." He said suddenly.

Hermione stood up, dusting off the bottom of her pajamas and looking over at him. "About how they changed him into a werewolf?"

"What?" Draco's eyebrows furrowed. "Oh, no. Not that."

Setting the second disc she had picked out down on the television set, she walked over to him and sat herself down on the table.

"Can't stop thinking about what?" she asked, tugging on her blanket.

He let it fall from his shoulders and she wrapped herself in it, looking at him curiously. He seemed to be biting the inside of his cheeks, unwilling to look at her. Hermione felt something tug at her stomach.

"Draco?" she asked.

This time, he looked at her.

"Can't stop thinking about what?" she asked hesitantly, thinking that she already knew what he was referring to.

"You know," he started, shifting awkwardly on the table. "That night. The night you helped me to my dorm."

"You were drunk," Hermione said instinctually, shrugging a shoulder. "It wasn't that big of a deal."

"But it was."

Silence followed his comment and Hermione found that she suddenly couldn't look at him.

What was he talking about? But it was? Sure, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger don't just go around kissing each other, so she guessed it was kind of a big deal. But it wasn't a big deal to them because it didn't mean anything to them. Right?

"Draco?" Hermione asked hesitantly, not being able to lift her eyes up to look at him. A deep tinge set into her cheeks and down the back of her neck. "It didn't… mean anything, right?"

A beat of silence passed between them.

"I don't know," he muttered, reaching a hand up and running it through his hair. "I've been… thinking that maybe –"

"Draco," she interrupted him, shaking her head. "It didn't mean anything."

She finally looked up at him, her eyes catching his steely grey ones and holding them there.

"I'm not so sure," he said back.

She stared at him and she was vaguely aware of how fast her heart was racing in her chest. Surely, he was mistaken. Surely, they had just been spending too much time together. They were confused, that was all.

"Maybe we're both just lonely," Hermione said, trying to reason with him.

"Maybe we are." He agreed, though his eyes never left hers.

Was he moving closer, or was she? She couldn't tell, but a moment later she felt a light brush on her lips. It sent a tingle down her back and she could practically hear her heart in her throat. It was quick and light, and it only lasted a second before there was a distance between them again.

She stared at him and he stared at her, neither of them moving.

The world hadn't imploded, which was good.

It seemed like nothing had changed at all really. They were still sat in that little room, and all the college students were still out for the night, and Voldemort hadn't suddenly risen from his grave to wreak havoc at the fact that a pureblood had just killed a muggleborn.

And then it happened again.

Her lips touched his and it was firmer this time. Her hand came up and her fingertips lightly touched his jaw. His skin was smooth and soft. She didn't know what she had been expecting, but it felt warm and comfortable. More so than she cared to admit.

His hand came up and cupped the back of her neck, inching her towards him, and she gave into his demand almost instantly.

She didn't know how much time had passed when they pulled away from each other. Her heart was pounding, and her lips were tingling. She was pleasantly surprised at how well he was at kissing. It was significantly different to how Ron had ever kissed her, or Krum. Well better than Cormac.

They didn't say anything for a long time, simply staring at each other, wondering what they were supposed to do next.

"Heeeermioneeee!"

Hermione jumped away from him at the sound of Eleanor's sing-song voice echoing down the hallway.

"Where are you love?" Padma called out after her.

Hermione and Draco had just gotten to their feet when the door opened, flooding them with harsh light, and her roommates came bumbling into the room.

"There you are!" Eleanor yelled, slurring her words. "We've been looking for you allll night!"

Padma winced beside Eleanor, smiling big. "She's a little drunk, sorry."

"I can see that," Hermione said, trying to push away whatever had just happened between her and Draco, watching as Eleanor came stumbling over to them, putting an arm around Hermione's neck.

Eleanor eyed Draco up and down. "Well, well, well, look who it is! Mr. I don't want to go out, I'd rather stay in and hang out with my girlfriend!"

Hermione and Draco caught eyes instantly in alarm.

"She's not my girlfriend."

"We're just friends."

"Yeeah, yeeeah," Eleanor said, her breath reeking of vodka and something else that Hermione couldn't distinguish. "We're just friends. Blah, blah."

Padma came over and took hold of Eleanor's other arm, steadying her.

"Did you guys have fun tonight?" Hermione asked Padma over Eleanor's head.

"It was alright. Eleanor got a little too drunk a little too quickly though. We had to leave the party." Padma explained.

They were just starting to lead Eleanor out of the room, Draco trailing behind them with Hermione's blanket bundled up in his arms, when Eleanor suddenly looked over her shoulder at him.

"If you're just friends then, what do you say you and I hang out tonight?"

Something in Hermione's stomach tightened. It was a familiar feeling, but she refused to believe that she was jealous. Eleanor was allowed to be with whoever she wanted – including Draco, considering they weren't together. Still, she couldn't stop the blush of anger that crept up into her cheeks, and she tightened her hold on Eleanor.

Behind her, Draco's eyes shifted from the back of Hermione's head to Eleanor and back before he cleared his throat. "Maybe another time." He said.

They walked in silence upstairs, Eleanor blabbering on about Derek and how gross he was, and how good-looking Draco was in comparison. Hermione tried her best to ignore her.

Finally reaching their room, Hermione helped Padma place Eleanor in her bed while Draco deposited her blanket on her bed. Padma was just conjuring up some water for Eleanor when Draco started for the door. Hermione followed him, not particularly wanting to be around Eleanor at the moment.

They stepped out into the dimly lit hall, Hermione closing the door behind her.

Draco turned to look at her, pushing his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. Hermione couldn't bring herself to look directly at him.

"Well," she started, uncertain what to say. "I guess I'll see you later."

"Okay," Draco said, not turning away from her.

She shifted under his intense gaze before finally caving and looking at him. He took a step towards her, leaned down, and pressed his lips firmly against hers again.

All of her anger and jealousy seemed to fly out the window, and all she could focus on was Draco's solid form in front of her. She reached a hand up and touched his shoulder, pulling him towards her.

They broke away and Draco stared down at her before a slight smirk came over his pale lips. Hermione couldn't help the smile that found her way onto hers.

"I'll see you later," he said casually as if they had just concluded one of their normal study sessions in the library, before he turned and started away down the hall.

Hermione watched his retreating figure for as long as she could until he was out of sight, an uncertain but excited smile still plastered on her face.


End file.
